Ex-El Segundo Police Chief Sues City Over His Demotion

Former El Segundo Police Chief Raymond W. Lewis filed suit in federal court against the city Wednesday, alleging that Mayor Jack Siadek and other city officials conspired to demote him to captain.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, contends that Lewis “alienated certain members of the City Council” two years ago when he, a captain at the time, disclosed that former City Manager Nicholas Romaniello had asked for a police report on council candidate Alan West. West, a Romaniello foe, eventually was elected.

“Politics makes strange bedfellows, and I guess we are seeing the fallout of that,” said Lewis’ lawyer, Gregory Petersen.

“The bottom line, I think, is retaliation,” Petersen added.

Besides Siadek, the suit names as defendants interim City Manager Fred Sorsabal, Police Capt. Timothy Grimmond and Advanced Management Concepts, a consulting firm that recently completed a city-commissioned study of Lewis’ leadership of the 65-officer department.

The suit seeks $335,000 in punitive damages and other, unspecified monetary damages.

Sorsabal and Grimmond declined to comment on the lawsuit. Officials at Advanced Management Concepts could not be reached for comment.

Siadek, informed of the allegation in the suit, called it “ridiculous.” He said that he was one of the council members who favored elevating Lewis to the chief’s post after Romaniello was fired.

“His charges are very confusing to me,” Siadek said. “I do not understand what he is talking about.”

The lawsuit was filed one week after Sorsabal announced that Lewis, 41, was being relieved from the chief’s job and returned to his previous position as captain--a job he is allowed to keep under the city’s Civil Service regulations. Simultaneous with the demotion, Sorsabal said both Lewis and Grimmond, a 21-year veteran of the department, had been placed on leave with pay pending a city investigation of the department.

Frank V. Meehan, a former Redondo Beach police chief, was hired to serve as interim chief.

Lewis’ demotion and forced leave came about 10 days after Advanced Management Concepts completed its study of the department under Lewis and submitted its report. Sorsabal and City Atty. Leland Dolley have refused to make the report public or disclose its findings.

However, council members have acknowledged severe morale problems within the department, with officers complaining of unfair or inconsistent treatment under Lewis.

Additionally, city sources have said that an intense power struggle had developed between Lewis and Grimmond, who had been a contender for the chief’s job before Lewis was appointed to the post in July, 1986.

Earlier that year, while still a captain, Lewis wrote an internal memo criticizing Romaniello for trying to obtain a confidential police report on West. Romaniello, who later admitted asking Lewis for the report, was suspended by the council after members learned of the incident. After the election he was fired.

In his memo, Lewis wrote that police files contained “nothing pertaining to any illegality or improper conduct on the part of Mr. West.” Under California law, it is a misdemeanor to release police records of an investigation if no criminal charges are filed.

In the suit filed Wednesday, Lewis alleges that former or current City Council members and Siadek held meetings to discuss Lewis’ ouster as chief. The discussions, the suit alleges, took place in violation of law, which require such meetings to be held in public.

The suit also alleges that Siadek, Grimmond and others “were heard to discuss the termination and discharge” of Lewis.

Siadek labeled both accusations as “absolutely false.”

The suit also contends that Sorsabal undermined Lewis’ ability to effectively manage the Police Department by allowing Grimmond “to pervade the Police Department with an atmosphere of management by fear in direct contravention to the orders” of Lewis.

The suit also alleges that Advanced Management Concepts’ investigative procedures failed to provide a “neutral and unbiased evaluation of the management situation” within the department, and that the city unlawfully demoted Lewis from the chief’s job without first giving him a chance to file an administrative appeal.