Ex-Gardena Officer Sues Over Job Loss

A former Gardena policeman has filed a $10-million federal civil rights suit charging that he was forced out of police work by supervisors who unfairly labeled him “trigger-happy.”

Craig Knapp, 40, charged in the lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, that he has suffered emotional distress and has been unable to find another job since his forced retirement from the Police Department nearly two years ago.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the city of Gardena, Police Chief Richard K. Propster and Capt. Robert D. Bohan.

Police and city officials refused to comment on the lawsuit or discuss any aspect of Knapp’s 12-year career, during which he was involved in at least seven shooting incidents. The suit is the latest chapter in a nearly 5-year-old dispute between Knapp and the department.

Knapp said in an interview Thursday that his blemished record prevents him from finding a job with a security firm or police department. “It’s a waste of my time to even look for a job,” he said. “I have been told no one will touch me.”

Since retiring, Knapp said, he has worked at a gas station, a Christmas tree lot and a restaurant.

Knapp’s career problems began Aug. 18, 1983, when he shot and killed a man who fled after stealing a car outside a Redondo Beach department store.

According to the lawsuit, Knapp was justified in the shooting because the suspect tried to run him over with the car and then ran toward a sporting goods store where he could have armed himself and taken hostages.

Knapp said he felt persecuted after the shooting. He was forced into a desk job, he said, despite being cleared of wrongdoing by the district attorney’s office and being presented with a clean bill of health by two psychologists.

He returned to patrol duty in 1984, but the dispute flared again when he was accused of racial discrimination in the arrest of two black men. Knapp was vindicated, the lawsuit claims, when both suspects were convicted.

Nonetheless, Knapp was forced to take a disability retirement in August, 1984, on the recommendation of a county psychologist who told the city that Knapp had been involved in 13 shooting incidents during his 12 years on the force and was more likely than other officers to fire his gun.

The lawsuit disputes those charges. It says Knapp was involved in seven “documented shootings” and department reviews concluded that he had acted properly in each. Knapp also charges that the psychologist was unqualified because he had no experience evaluating police officers.

But the retirement order stood. Knapp continued his appeal until 1986, when a hearing officer ruled that the city had acted improperly. The Gardena City Council ordered June 11, 1986, that Knapp be reinstated and granted back pay.

But the saga was not over.

‘Intolerable Atmosphere’

On returning to work, Knapp said, he found “an impossible and intolerable working atmosphere.” Other officers treated him as a pariah because he had been billed as a “threat to society” by Police Department administration, he said.

Supervisors also harassed him by requiring that he always work with a field training officer despite his years of experience, Knapp charged.

“His present state of mind was precipitated by having to fight for over two years what was initially an improper, involuntary, forced retirement,” the lawsuit contends, “. . . as well as no longer enjoying the acceptance of his peers.”

Because the situation was unbearable, Knapp said, he applied for retirement in August, 1986.

The decorated Vietnam War veteran said this week: “My whole life has been geared toward being a cop. I wanted to be a cop since I was 5 years old. I miss it every day.”