In This Case, Don’t Settle for Anything but the Truth

Chris Matano, 20, a reserve officer for the Laguna Beach Police Department, has been suspended after a female prisoner accused him of assaulting her in a squad car while taking her to the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. While investigating that charge, police officials said, they learned of two other women arrestees who claim that Matano had fondled or molested them under similar circumstances earlier this year.

Through his attorney, Matano has said he’s innocent. The attorney, Thomas Perez, has suggested that the women’s possible motive in bringing the claims might be to force a cash settlement from the city.

That’s where things stand. City Clerk Verna Rollinger told a reporter that the city might not fight the women’s claims, because to do so often invites follow-up lawsuits. “I wouldn’t be surprised because of the exposure to the city, that we wouldn’t deny the claims,” she said. “If we deny the claims, it gets the ball rolling (toward litigation). If it looks like we’re in a bad light and the claimants were willing to settle for a reasonable amount of money, then that can happen also.”

I hope that doesn’t mean what it sounds like it means.

That logic might make sense if someone had bumped their head in a City Hall bathroom, got stitched up in an emergency ward and later wanted to sue. Sure, settle the case and tell them to be more careful next time.

But charges of sexual assault against a uniformed officer, albeit a reserve officer, shouldn’t be handled like that.

Matano has said he wants to be a career cop. I want to know, and so does everyone else who might run into this guy patrolling the beat someday, Did he assault these women or didn’t he ?

If he didn’t, the city has no business turning tail and settling out of court, just to avoid an ugly situation. If he did assault them, he should be fired and prosecuted. Then let the city settle up with the claimants.

I talked to another city official in the county, who said, “The first tenet is that if you’re not liable, you don’t make settlements. All that does is attract everyone else to file nuisance suits because they know you’ll settle. Of the cities that I know about, they won’t settle unless they’re reasonably sure, prudently sure, that there was liability on the city’s side.”

So, if the city settles, we could reasonably assume Matano is guilty, right?

Wrong, says attorney Lois Jeffrey. I solicited her opinion because she’s advised Orange County cities on various legal matters, including liability questions. We were talking generally and not specifically about the Laguna Beach case.

She said she didn’t think there was any overriding philosophy among cities to settle claims just to get them out of the way or avoid large litigation expenses.

That suggested to me that a city’s decision to settle a claim against an officer would signal their belief he was guilty. Not necessarily, Jeffrey said.

While saying it’s difficult to generalize, Jeffrey said that considerations that go into deciding which claims to settle are complicated. Therefore, she said, it would be unfair to assume anyone’s guilt just because the case had been settled.

I’ll buy that, which is exactly why Laguna Beach shouldn’t settle the Matano case unless it’s willing to admit he committed the offenses. Even if the people cutting the settlement deal could write in terms fuzzing the issue of Matano’s guilt or innocence, many citizens would assume he’s guilty if the city settles.

Furthermore, no police department would, or should, hire him in the future with that cloud hanging over him.

Matano’s attorney says he would oppose any decision by the city to settle. “We’d oppose it for a variety of reasons, namely because there’s a stigma of guilt associated with settlements,” Perez said. “The officer wants complete vindication and probably the only way he’s going to get that is through a fair hearing, where the witnesses’ credibility can be challenged.”

Of course, Laguna Beach could settle the case, fire Matano and let a possible criminal prosecution establish Matano’s guilt or innocence.

A strategy like that might get Laguna Beach off the hook and perhaps enable it to avoid the kind of unpleasant publicity its Police Department seems to be specializing in this year.

This is one hot potato Laguna Beach shouldn’t hand off.

It’s time to stand by their man--if they think he’s innocent. Matano shouldn’t be sacrificed just to avoid an unseemly incident.

And if he’s not innocent, then we can move rapidly to the next round of troubling questions concerning the 20-year-old designated driver.

Such as, just how easy is it to get a gun and a badge these days?

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.