Officer Fired in School Drug Case Loses Job Appeal

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates on Thursday denied the administrative appeal of a female police officer who was fired for allegedly becoming romantically involved with a high school football player during an undercover drug investigation.

Gates’ decision was made public shortly after Sharon Fischer appeared at a press conference with a Los Angeles police officer who said she was raped while working undercover in the same police program three years ago.

In her appeal, Fischer, 22, denied that her relationship with the 17-year-old student was romantic. The former officer said she befriended the “big man on campus” to bolster her undercover identity and to protect herself after she had been manhandled by a student who was trying to kiss her.

She said she informed her supervisor of her actions, and that they were taken to allow her to continue operating undercover in the 13-year-old police school buy program in which youthful-looking officers pose as students to arrange drug buys and make arrests.

Claims Students Suspected

In addition, she said, students involved in drug sales at the school were beginning to suspect she was a “narc,” and she hoped her friendship with the youth would convince students that she was one of them.

Police Cmdr. William D. Booth, however, said that, after the student’s mother complained to police, Fischer was fired on four counts of misconduct.

One count stated that she “improperly permitted a minor to fondle her breasts and buttocks.” The other counts included allegations of improperly writing and forwarding sexually suggestive notes to a minor, improperly telephoning a minor at his residence and maintaining “an improper relationship” with a minor.

In a prepared statement, Gates said: “This is an action I have to take that saddens me, but this department has high standards that must be maintained, and by her actions, she did not live up to them.”

Prosecution of nine suspects arrested in Fischer’s investigation at Kennedy High School in Granada Hills was dropped because authorities said they feared Fischer’s “bad judgment” could taint the cases.

Booth would not disclose how the Police Department reached its conclusions.

Michael P. Stone, Fischer’s lawyer, said the football player told investigators of the alleged fondling incident, but that “Sharon has steadfastly denied anything close to that kind of conduct.”

Fischer has not decided whether to pursue the matter further, but Stone said he will seek a court order for a police Board of Rights hearing “which would place the burden of proof on the department to back up the charges.”

No Cross-Examination

A department hearing officer heard Fischer’s account of the relationship on Monday, but that was not a Board of Rights hearing, in which the department would normally present witnesses who could be cross-examined by an officer’s legal counsel.

Fischer was joined Thursday by Officer Alice Padelford, 27, who said an attack on her in March, 1984, demonstrated the dangers that would justify Fischer’s fear of being harmed.

Padelford said she was raped and forced to smoke marijuana in March, 1984, by three drug dealers, one of them a former student at Hollywood High School, where she was working undercover. The officer said she had set up a meeting, which took place before the school day began, to arrange a drug buy. But the three targets of the buy had learned she was a police officer and turned on her, Padelford said.

Claim Dropped

Two juveniles were convicted in the assault. Padelford filed, but later dropped, a claim against the Los Angeles Unified School District accusing school officials of negligence in allowing her identity to be revealed to the drug dealers. School district officials could not be reached for comment.

Prosecution of a third suspect was dropped, Padelford said, because she was exhausted by the matter and preferred to devote her energy to her work. Padelford, who is still a police officer, has been on leave since 1985 and is seeking a disability pension.

Like Fischer, Padelford was a probationary officer when she was selected for the school buy program. Padelford had completed nine months of the department’s 18-month officer training period. Fischer had completed a year of the program.

Both women said they believed their police careers would have been damaged if they had asked to be taken out of the school buy program. They said their ordeals could have been avoided if they had been more experienced officers.

“A double-edged sword was at her stomach,” Padelford said of Fischer, referring to the pressure to stay undercover and the fear of being hurt while doing so.

The two women suggested the department could select officers who have more experience but still appear youthful.