Divorce Fight Ensnares Simi Police From Within

A Simi Valley policewoman has filed a $1-million claim against the city, charging other officers with sexual harassment, gender discrimination and invasion of privacy--further entangling the Police Department in a festering divorce and custody dispute between her and her ex-husband, a detective on the force.

Officer Florence Trapani’s claim contained few details about the allegations. But her attorney said Friday that the claim is based on her transfer in August from the department’s drug-abuse education program to patrol duty.

City Hall sources said her claim, filed Tuesday, was the latest in a series of charges and countercharges involving her ex-husband, auto theft Detective Mike Bender. Bender filed a similar claim against the city during the summer, accusing officials of libel and invasion of privacy.

“What you have here is two people so consumed with trying to do the other one in, they’ve kind of sucked everybody into it,” said a police source who asked not to be named.

Trapani’s attorney, William Rehwald of Woodland Hills, said that although his client is the subject of an internal investigation for alleged poor job performance--charges he described as “trumped-up”--her reassignment was inconsistent with the department’s standard procedure.

Rehwald said Bender is still assigned to the detective division even though administrative charges of sexual harassment and illegally tape-recording phone conversations have been sustained against him.

Bender’s appeal against those findings is scheduled to be heard in December, the police source said. Bender and Trapani, who were married in 1980 and divorced in 1985, are on stress leaves from the department.

Both officers are graduates of Royal High School in Simi Valley. Trapani, 32, has been widely recognized for her work in the DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, program. Bender, 34, was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 1983. For the last four years, he has earned the title of “Toughest Cop Alive” in athletic events at the biennial World Police and Fire Games.

Mayor Gregory Stratton and Police Chief Lindsey Paul Miller declined to comment on the claim. City Atty. John P. Torrance was not in his office Friday, and an assistant did not return a reporter’s calls.

Acrimony between Bender and Trapani, who have joint custody of their 5-year-old daughter, flared up in December when they inadvertently met at the girl’s school Christmas play, Rehwald said. Trapani was in uniform, on her lunch hour, while Bender attended the event with a female companion, according to the police source. The two had a confrontation, the source said.

Bender later accused Trapani of attending to personal business while on duty and of embarrassing the department with unseemly behavior while in uniform. A departmental inquiry concluded that the charges were unfounded, according to her attorney and the police source.

Trapani filed countercharges against Bender, accusing him of fondling her and exposing himself while the two were in the department’s weight room the previous February. Those charges were sustained by an internal inquiry, said Rehwald and the police source.

Bender’s illegal recording of telephone conversations with his ex-wife and others came to light while he was under investigation for sexual harassment, Rehwald said. Although the Ventura County district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges in connection with the recordings, administrative charges against the officer were sustained by the department.

Bender filed a claim against the city in August after his disciplinary proceedings were detailed in a local newspaper. The status of his claim could not be determined Friday. City lawyers did not return phone calls.

Named as defendants in Trapani’s claim this week were Bender, Miller and six other officers--Sgts. Mike Brewer, Rex Jones, Gary Collins and Ron Lompart, and drug-education Officers Glenn Peterson and John St. Laurent.

Rehwald said the city has 45 days to respond to the claim, a measure required before a public entity can be sued.