Rehiring Report Buoys Ex-Officer : Police: Daniel J. Lowrey, fired for allegedly lying in a police-brutality inquiry, says he feels vindicated by a Laguna panel’s recommendation that he be taken back.

A fired Laguna Beach police officer said Thursday that he feels vindicated now that the city’s Personnel Board is recommending his rehiring.

Daniel J. Lowrey, 26, fired for allegedly lying during a police-brutality investigation, said he was on the phone all day Thursday answering congratulatory calls from fellow officers.

Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. fired Lowrey three months ago after accusing him of lying during an investigation concerning former officer Keith R. Knotek. Knotek was videotaped last year kicking at a man struggling on the ground with officers who had been called to the scene of a party. Purcell fired Knotek, ruling that the kicks were an improper use of force.

In dispute regarding Lowrey’s firing was whether Lowrey had lied when he told a police captain that he didn’t see Knotek kick the man. Lowrey told Capt. William Cavenaugh that he saw kicking motions out of the corner of his eye as he focused his attention on the struggle to handcuff the man on the sidewalk, but that he never saw the kicks land.

Lowrey can be seen on the videotape standing nearby and watching the struggle.

Purcell and Cavenaugh have maintained that Lowrey, standing close to the struggle, must have seen the kicks regardless of his state of mind.

Lowrey, however, said it was unfair for the supervisory officers to “Monday morning quarterback” the incident and decide what he must have seen.

The Personnel Board’s decision, released Wednesday, stated that there was no way to prove that Lowrey saw the kicks land and recommended to City Manager Kenneth C. Frank that Lowrey be reinstated as a patrol officer.

Frank said this week that he will review the transcripts of the board’s hearing and hire an independent attorney to advise him on his options. He expects to decide in about two weeks, he said.

Lowrey, who had been with the department for three years, said he is happy with the Personnel Board’s decision because it shows that the three-member panel believed his statements about what he saw. He says he is optimistic that Frank will decide to rehire him.

“If Mr. Frank sees through the opinions of the chief to the facts and the evidence, as the board did, I don’t see how he could decide otherwise,” Lowrey said.

If rehired, Lowrey said, he believes he could still work effectively in the Laguna Beach department even though his and Knotek’s firings have created a rift between patrol and supervisory officers.

“The officers who work out on the street are a close-knit bunch,” he said. “I’d have no problem working with them at all.”