Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Private Investigator Sues Ex-Police Chief

A Santa Ana private investigator who claims that police violated his civil rights by investigating him has filed a federal lawsuit against former Police Chief Raymond Davis and two other officers.

In the lawsuit, Preston Guillory alleged that police violated his rights by taping several conversations he had with a Santa Ana police officer in 1984. Guillory went to the police seeking protection after the home of a client, then-Municipal Judge Bobby D. Youngblood, was firebombed in July, 1984.

Those tapes were subsequently turned over to Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, according to the suit filed Friday in Santa Ana.

Guillory is suing Gates over the same alleged investigation. He alleged that Gates ordered people to spy on him because he had criticized the sheriff’s policies. That case is scheduled for trial in January in federal court in Los Angeles.

Meir J. Westreich, Guillory’s attorney, said Guillory decided to sue the Santa Ana police as well, because a police officer revealed during a deposition in the Gates case that Santa Ana was conducting its own investigation of Guillory.

Santa Ana police officials could not be reached for comment late Monday.