2 LAPD Officers Join Homosexual Bias Suit : Discrimination: Pair back ex-colleague’s charges of widespread harassment of homosexuals on the force. Court asked to protect the identities of the officers.

Two Los Angeles police officers joined a former colleague in a pending sexual discrimination suit against the department Tuesday, backing his allegations of widespread harassment of and discrimination against homosexual members of the force and adding more charges of their own.

The landmark lawsuit, originally filed about a year ago in Los Angeles Superior Court by former Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson, accused Los Angeles Police Department officers and supervisors of conspiring to force him to resign through threats and intimidation because of his sexual orientation. Grobeson, 30, is a police captain in a Northern California city he would not name.

The male and female officer who joined the suit--described only as John Doe-1 and John Doe-2 in court documents--charged that the Los Angeles Police Department has harassed, intimidated, threatened and retaliated against them because they are thought to be homosexual.

The woman officer has publicly stated her homosexuality, but the other officer claims that he is harassed because he is perceived to be gay, said their attorney, Dan Stormer.

In an attempt to protect these and other officers who may come forward in the course of litigating the suit, the officers’ attorney filed a highly unusual legal motion Tuesday calling on the court to protect their identities and to prevent their colleagues and the Police Department from retaliation.

“Their lives could be in jeopardy,” said Stormer, claiming that in at least one potentially dangerous situation “an officer was denied backup assistance by fellow officers because he is a homosexual.” He added that “we have 7,000 to 8,000 police officers with loaded guns, many of whom are actively homophobic.”

In the motion for a “protective order,” scheduled for a hearing Dec. 12, Stormer argues that the Police Department has “historically been extremely hostile” to gay men and lesbians.

As alleged examples of homophobia among the Police Department’s leaders, documents filed in court by Stormer quote Monterey Park Police Chief Kenneth G. Hickman--formerly one of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ senior commanders--as stating that Gates told him several years ago that “homosexuals are evil, and they do evil.”

Stormer also cited a memo written by Deputy Los Angeles Police Chief R.L. Vernon in 1976, in which he refers to homosexuals as “emotionally sick” and states that homosexual acts are “inherently immoral, abnormal, and criminal. . . .” The memo adds that to maintain public trust and department efficiency “the disqualification of police applicants based on substantial homosexual conduct must be continued.”

Police Department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth noted Tuesday that the city has since instituted a policy banning discrimination against homosexuals by employers and said the department’s philosophy and practice are that “sexual preference makes no more difference to this department than the color of one’s eyes.”

Booth said he could not comment on court documents that are best refuted in court.

Besides the Police Department and the city, other defendants named in the suit include Gates, six patrol officers, six sergeants, one lieutenant and three captains.

Deputy City Atty. Art Walsh said, “The issue is whether the city and the Police Department discriminate against homosexuals now, not what they did 10 years ago.”

Walsh said he had not yet seen the legal motions filed Tuesday and, therefore, could not comment on them. He added, however, that he had no objection to the unusual protective order as long as it does not inhibit his ability to defend his clients.

Stormer contends that the special measure is necessary to protect other officers who may want to come forward to testify but are afraid of retaliation for testifying against the department or of jeopardizing their careers by making their homosexuality known.

The stigma against officers who testity against their colleagues is so damaging that, according to Stormer, this is the first such suit filed by homosexual officers against a police department.

“I believe that now that some officers have stepped forward, a floodgate is about to be opened,” the lawyer said. “Other officers have indicated that with sufficient protection they would step forward.”

Although “terrified” for years of being found out, the woman officer who joined Grobeson’s suit said she decided to step forward because she is “sick of the harassment,” the constant homophobic comments, the special duties she was passed over for time and again, the ostracism by fellow officers and having to remain silent when colleagues plotted to deny backup protection to a gay officer.

She does not believe the ill treatment will stop “for me or anyone who succeeds me unless something is done.”

Still, she added: “I’m very scared--not just for my career--but for my safety.”