Fire Dept. to Hold Closed Hearing in Sex Harassment Case

Members of a Los Angeles Fire Department Board of Rights--in an apparently unprecedented action--ignored the demand of an accused fireman for a public hearing Friday and decided to hear allegations of sexual harassment at a Westchester fire station behind closed doors.

The board, composed of three battalion chiefs, acted over the strenuous objection of Fire Capt. John Squire on behalf of firefighter Anthony Morales, an eight-year veteran who was accused of “conduct unbecoming a member of the Fire Department” and suspended.

“It’s unprecedented to the best of my knowledge,” Squire said in a recess of the board in City Hall East. “The only option we have at this point is to seek an injunction in court. That is a distinct possibility.”

Ralph Travis, secretary of United Firefighters of Los Angeles, Local 112, told The Times that the union will also consider legal action because the hearing was closed over defense objections.

The board’s action came amid indications that the Fire Department’s investigation of Fire Station 5 at 6621 Manchester Ave. may lead to still more charges against other department members.

Before the hearing was closed, Squire argued that it should be public because of what he called a “predisposition” of Fire Department officials, including Fire Chief Donald O. Manning, to consider Morales guilty of the charges against him.

Squire requested--and got--each of the board members to declare that he had not been influenced by newspaper coverage of the case, a Los Angeles Times editorial or public statements by Mayor Tom Bradley or Manning.

The request to close the hearing was made on behalf of the Fire Department by Capt. John F. Kirkorn, who argued that it is in the “best interest of justice” to keep the board’s deliberations secret.

“What kind of justice are we going to have for some department witnesses, who have been stressed out, by having to relate these ‘horror stories,’ ” Kirkorn asked.

When Squire objected that use of the term “horror stories” reflected a predisposition against Morales, Kirkorn withdrew the description and declared that the board should consider the privacy rights of the department’s chief witness and the defendant and his family.

“This is going to be a muddy hearing,” Kirkorn said.

Kirkorn maintained that the board’s authority to close the hearing is provided in the Fire Department’s manual for Board of Rights hearings.

The board, composed of William D. Lilly, John Mittendorf and Thomas B. Stires, ordered a recess and returned with a decision to close the hearing.

The department’s chief witness is reported to be a female firefighter who was completing the final weeks of a year’s probation at Fire Station 5 earlier this year when the alleged sexual harassment occurred.

Lifting Weights

Although she never filed charges and the Fire Department has not disclosed details of what happened, sources who wish to remain anonymous said the woman had been lifting weights in an upstairs dormitory when a nude fireman repeatedly entered the room.

A months-long investigation of the incident grew out of a complaint by a Fire Department female paramedic in May that firemen at Station 5 had been watching sexually explicit material on the station’s television set.

Deputy Chief Darrel Thompson, commander of operations, said Friday that he is “looking into” the possibility of a departmental order barring all sexually explicit material from fire stations.