ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Allegations of Sexual Assault

Three women this week alleged that they had been sexually assaulted by a Laguna Beach reserve police officer in separate incidents since March. The national attention given the Rodney King beating by Los Angeles police officers and congressional hearings on Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court have added special urgency to questions of police misconduct and of sexual harassment of women. Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. and the Orange County district attorney’s office must investigate the charges and clear up the matter.

The women, through their attorney, claim that the alleged incidents involved reserve officer Chris Matano, 20, and occurred March 28, Sept. 7 and Oct. 12. All claimed that they were stopped initially on suspicion of drunk driving and that the sexual assaults occurred when they were being transported to jail. Among their charges are that Matano threatened to strip-search one woman; that he unzipped the shorts of another and engaged in sexual talk with her and that he “terrorized and sexually molested” the third. Matano has denied the charges.

Purcell says the department first learned of complaints Oct. 14, at which time Matano was suspended from his reserve duties pending a department investigation, now under way. The chief refuses to comment further. However, the attorney for the women, Peter A. Seidenberg, asserts that the woman in the first alleged incident had asked another attorney shortly afterward to file a complaint about Matano with the Police Department and the district attorney’s office.

The unresolved question in these conflicting accounts is whether a complaint ever was filed and, if so, whether the department ignored it and allowed Matano to stay on duty. The lodging of three complaints stemming from alleged incidents over seven months also raises a question about adequate supervision and training of a reserve officer.

The woman in the first alleged incident also has complained that another member of the department, a sworn officer, stopped her car on Laguna Canyon Road on Sept. 11 and told her, “We don’t believe what you’re saying about Chris Matano.” If true, that suggests that her claim was known earlier in the Police Department.

Such charges shake a community’s confidence in its police force. They must be resolved as soon as possible.