City Dismissal of Police Officer Upheld
A judge has affirmed a decision by the Santa Ana Police Department to dismiss a former patrol officer, Robert Allen, for not being truthful in a 1982 corruption investigation.
Superior Court Judge Gary L. Taylor ruled Thursday that city personnel officials properly denied Allen’s appeal of his termination, based on “the weight of the evidence” in a 1984 hearing.
Allen, now 31, was fired after investigators concluded that he telephoned a suspect in a stolen goods ring and told him that a man posing as a buyer was in fact a police informant. Allen denied any memory of the conversation, which allegedly took place hours before other officers arrested the suspect.
The 10-day hearing by the city Personnel Board was the longest in the city’s history, according to Allen’s lawyer, Cecil E. Ricks Jr. The board voted 4 to 3 to uphold Allen’s termination.
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