Ex-Officer’s Suit Over Klan Duty Goes to Trial

The top command of the San Diego Police Department disavowed its own undercover officer inside the Ku Klux Klan and destroyed his intelligence reports to hide allegations that police were illegally spying on a right-wing congressional candidate.

With that summary, the attorney for Douglas K. Seymour on Thursday opened the trial in a 5-year-old lawsuit in which the former police reserve officer is seeking up to $2.5 million in damages.

Attorney David M. Korrey contended that his client suffered mental problems and lost his wife and construction company because police coerced him into staying too long in the difficult undercover assignment and then destroyed his reports after it appeared the police were violating the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act is a 1939 federal law that prohibits government workers from participating in politics.

But defense attorneys for the city and the Police Department said Seymour’s allegations that the Police Department turned its back on him were “a figment of his imagination” and instead described Seymour as a drug and alcohol abuser whose problems were of his own making.

“This is a case of an attention-seeking con man,” said Kenneth So, deputy city attorney.

Star Witnesses Scheduled

The trial is scheduled to draw several star witnesses, including Police Chief Bill Kolender and members of his top command; Tom Metzger of Fallbrook, the Klan leader who recently has been identified as assuming the new national leadership of the white supremacist movement, and Lance Alworth, a former All-Pro wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers who later became a business associate of Seymour’s.

With county marshals posted both inside and outside the courtroom, San Diego Superior Court Judge Raul Rosado has ordered all spectators searched before entering the courtroom, where a five-man, seven-woman jury will consider the case during the next four weeks.

Seymour was a San Diego police reserve officer when he was recruited in 1979 for the undercover Klan detail. For 2 1/2 years, he attended rallies, demonstrations and cross burnings throughout Southern California and eventually became one of Metzger’s right-hand men.

Korrey said Seymour routinely filed written, taped and verbal police reports, and the Police Department routinely paid for all of his undercover expenses.

In 1980, Metzger became the Democratic candidate for Congress. During the campaign, Kolender endorsed Metzger’s opponent. Later, after Seymour’s cover was blown, Metzger threatened to sue the Police Department for violating the Hatch Act, contending that police spent tax money and resources for Seymour to spy on his political campaign.

Kolender at the time responded publicly that he was unaware of Seymour’s work as an undercover officer. In addition, Korrey told the jury, all of Seymour’s police reports were destroyed.

The reports, he said, described details of Klan rallies and riots, identified Klan members and other right-wing agitators, included such documents as a Klan Arrest Manual, and also provided valuable information on upcoming right-wing activities.

Korrey said that while Seymour wanted out of the Klan during the Congressional campaign, his police supervisors coerced him into staying on the undercover assignment.

He said the gross annual revenue from Seymour’s construction company plunged from $1.3 million to $98,000 while he worked undercover, and that police supervisors enlisted a group of officers to invest in a business deal to keep Seymour afloat financially.

Released from Assignment

But Korrey said Seymour was only let out of the assignment when it became clear that the police hierarchy could potentially be embarrassed by Metzger’s threat to sue them for spying on his campaign.

“It was safer for them to deny Doug Seymour was a cop than admit the potential violation of the Hatch Act,” Korrey said. “The San Diego Police Department’s top brass hoisted themselves on their own petard. It’s called the Hatch Act.”

But So and Daniel Krinsky, an attorney for the Police Officers Assn., told the jury that Seymour, who for a long time wanted to become a police officer, enthusiastically volunteered for the undercover assignment.

“He loved it,” So said. “In fact, he did not ask to get out. He kept wanting to be a cop.”

The defense attorneys said police supervisors repeatedly warned Seymour that his marriage and business were failing because he was spending too much time on the assignment.

So said Seymour has long suffered mental problems and that he has been married “four or five times.”

And Krinsky said Seymour turned to alcohol and drugs because he was pulled off the undercover detail. “Mr. Seymour was a serious, serious cocaine addict,” he said.

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. Monday with Seymour’s testimony.