Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MILITARY : Base Security Guard, Saying Navy Kidnaped Him, Sues

Ronald Sheridan was willing to participate in a security exercise at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station last year. But as a civilian security officer, he objected to being “kidnaped” from his Eagle Rock home and driven to a Costa Mesa hotel where he was allegedly held hostage for about 28 hours, handcuffed, beaten and had his head held in a toilet.

Sheridan, 51, of Los Angeles and his wife, Margaret, filed a $6-million lawsuit against the federal government in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week.

Base spokesman John Frye said that the Navy would not comment on the pending litigation. He did say, however, that an internal investigation of the exercise is being conducted by the judge advocate general’s office, the Navy’s legal department.

Frye said Sheridan is a civilian employee with the title of site security officer and is second-in-command of the civilian security force at the base.

Sheridan’s attorney, Carl B. Pearlston Jr., said his client’s rough treatment came during an exercise that was intended to determine whether the base could be penetrated. Navy officials, Pearlston said, have told the attorney that they consider Sheridan to have been a Navy employee. One official, Pearlston said, called Sheridan a “crybaby” because of his complaints.

According to Pearlston, Sheridan was picked up at his home before dawn on March 20, 1986, by a base security officer and driven to the Costa Mesa motel. After being kept there all day, Sheridan told the men holding him that he wanted to go home. But instead of releasing him, they beat him, at times bouncing him upside down on his head, banging his head against the wall and dunking him in a bathtub, Pearlston said. At one point, Sheridan felt something popping in his rib cage and asked for medical assistance but his captors refused, he said.

Sheridan was kept at the motel overnight and taken to the Seal Beach base the following morning, Pearlston said.

The lawsuit states that Sheridan suffered mental and physical pain, including bruises, pinched nerves and a dislocated rib. He lost time from work and is undergoing physical therapy, Pearlston said.