Board Upholds Chief’s Decision to Fire Officer : Police: A personnel report concludes that Keith R. Knotek lost self-control when he kicked a resistant suspect during an arrest in South Laguna.

The city Personnel Board on Friday unanimously endorsed the police chief’s decision to fire an officer accused of using excessive force during an arrest last summer that was captured on videotape.

Keith R. Knotek, 26, was dismissed in May after a Laguna Beach Police Department internal investigation concluded that he improperly kicked a man whom two other officers were trying to handcuff on a South Laguna sidewalk.

Knotek appealed the firing to the Personnel Board, which met for three days last month to review the incident. Knotek has maintained that his kicks to the man’s upper arm were justified, since the man was kicking and elbowing the two officers trying to subdue him.

But the board’s report, released late Friday, concluded that Knotek’s kicks were “an unwarranted escalation of that situation and an exercise of poor judgment.” Knotek’s actions “appear to have been undertaken during a momentary loss of self-control. . . .” the report said.

Knotek and his attorney could not be reached Friday for comment.

The three-member Personnel Board made its decision during a private meeting July 26, board Chairman Jerrold A. Block said earlier this week. But the decision was kept confidential while the formal report was being prepared and sent to the city’s personnel officer and Knotek’s attorney.

Under Laguna Beach personnel rules, the board’s decision is a recommendation to City Manager Kenneth C. Frank, who has final city authority to decide whether Knotek should be rehired. Frank was on vacation this week.

The Personnel Board’s decision sides with earlier decisions by Frank and the City Council to support Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr.’s decision to fire the officer. Purcell has said Knotek had no justification for kicking the man during the arrest and fired the officer in May, five months after the videotape of the kicking surfaced.

Knotek can still appeal his firing to Orange County Superior Court.

The videotape of the arrest shows Knotek kicking three times at Kevin A. Dunbar, 25. Two other officers are on the ground with Dunbar, trying to get his arms behind his back. Personnel Board testimony revealed that Knotek kicked Dunbar twice in the upper right arm. One kick missed and nearly hit one of the other officers in the head.

Police arrested Dunbar outside of a party in June, 1990, after a records check revealed several warrants for failing to appear in court on earlier misdemeanor charges of drinking in public and similar alleged offenses.

Dunbar has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers who arrested him.

Dunbar’s attorney, Christopher B. Mears, said Friday that he was not surprised by the Personnel Board’s decision.

The officers “tried to make it appear they were only acting in accordance with their training,” Mears said. “But obviously the board saw through that. . . . To me, this is a case of an officer who lost his cool and assaulted and battered a citizen.”

The Orange County district attorney’s office and the grand jury investigated the incident and concluded that no criminal charges were warranted against Knotek. But the internal affairs report recommended that Knotek and a second officer, Daniel Lowrey, both be fired over the incident.

Purcell said he fired Lowrey because he lied during the internal investigation. Lowery also is appealing his dismissal to the Personnel Board.