California IN BRIEF : CONCORD : Captains Cleared of Bathroom Spying

Two police captains implicated in a 1986 men’s room spying incident have been exonerated in a disciplinary arbitration, an attorney said Friday. Arbiter Emily Maloney ruled that captains Robert Evans and Wayne Novinger are to be compensated for lost wages and loss of seniority resulting from disciplinary actions against them, Gary Lepper, an attorney defending the pair in a federal lawsuit brought by their co-workers, said Friday. Evans and Novinger were suspended without pay in the summer of 1989 by the city manager after a three-month investigation. The probe was conducted after charges were made that a video camera was installed in the department bathroom to spy on officers using the urinal. The surveillance was part of then-Police Chief George Straka’s unsuccessful attempt to catch a vandal who had been clogging the urinal with paper towels and flooding offices. More than 30 current and former city employees have sued the city, Straka, Lt. James Jennings and the two captains in federal court, claiming their civil rights were violated.