Vernon Injected Religious Views on Job, Officials Say : Police: He even investigated Gates, court papers claim. The assistant chief’s lawyer calls the charges unspecific.

Although he was cleared of any wrongdoing by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, Assistant Chief Robert Vernon improperly injected his religious views into department business and once--claiming “God wants me to be chief”--even investigated Gates in an attempt to win the chief’s job for himself, police officials said in sworn statements filed Tuesday.

The documents, filed in federal court by the city, include allegations that Vernon’s on-the-job religious activities ranged from giving higher scores to “born-again” Christians to promoting a policy of crosses on uniforms to doodling Christian “fish” signs on official memos.

In addition, the declarations say Vernon criticized a ranking subordinate for being “soft on gays” and tried to prevent the arrests of Operation Rescue demonstrators who blocked entrances to family planning clinics, because he agreed with the protesters’ anti-abortion views.

Some of the charges came from Vernon’s rivals in the competition to succeed Gates, who has agreed to step down in June. The sworn statements from Assistant Chief David Dotson and Deputy Chiefs Glenn Levant and Bernard Parks could figure in the selection process as it moves into its final phases.

Declarations also were taken from five other current and former LAPD officers. Their statements include descriptions of specific instances in which Vernon allegedly “acted improperly to give preferential treatment to his religious followers.”

The court papers were filed by the city in an effort to persuade a federal court judge to dismiss Vernon’s July, 1991, civil rights lawsuit, in which the 37-year Police Department veteran said his career had been sabotaged by an internal investigation into his religious beliefs which was launched at the request of City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

“Vernon persistently has abused his high-ranking position to promote his fundamentalist religion on the job,” said Century City attorney Skip Miller, hired by the city to defend it in the Vernon case.

The defendants in the suit include the city, the City Council, Yaroslavsky, the Board of Police Commissioners and two of its current members, Stanley K. Sheinbaum and Jesse Brewer, and former Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax.

Perhaps the most provocative declaration was submitted by former LAPD Detective Neil K. Spotts, who retired from the department in 1980 and since then has been employed by Playboy Enterprises as its western region security manager.

Spotts said that Gates, a few years after becoming chief in 1978, asked him to look into rumors that Vernon had launched a secret investigation of Gates.

During his probe, Spotts said, he met with Vernon in a “dirty room” in the basement of the old Ambassador Hotel. “I met alone with Vernon, who expressed his disenchantment with Chief Gates and confirmed that he was conducting an investigation of Gates,” Spotts said. “Vernon said that he, Vernon, wanted to Chief of Police and, further, that ‘God wants me to be Chief.’

“Vernon and the other officers working with him in this investigation were operating on their own and in secret. I believed--and one of them confirmed to me--that Vernon and the others were ‘born again’ Christians, operating as part of a secret group within the LAPD.”

The declaration contains no further information about what became of the investigation. Spotts did not return calls seeking elaboration. Vernon’s attorney, David Casterline, declined comment on the declaration, other than to say that it was not legally relevant to the city’s motion to have the case dismissed.

Gates confirmed Tuesday that Spotts had looked into whether Vernon was investigating him. But, he said, there was no real evidence such a probe had occurred. “There was no specificity regarding an investigation whatsoever,” Gates said. “Had there been some basis, don’t you think I would have gone forward and used that information? Do you think I ever would have appointed him (Vernon) assistant chief?”

Gates pointedly said he was troubled by the timing of the charges.

“I’m concerned with what’s taking place here,” he said. “There’s a chief’s exam. I’m very very unhappy with the internecine warfare that in many respects is seemingly unprofessional and does not speak well for some of the top staff in this department.”

Gates said Dotson, Levant and Parks did not bring their complaints to his attention while the chief was conducting his own investigation of Vernon. “Apparently now they are making affidavits but none of that was revealed until just recently,” he said

Police Commission President Sheinbaum declined comment. However, he said Gates might have to reopen an internal police investigation of Vernon in light of the new allegations.

Gates late last year said his internal probe found no wrongdoing by Vernon.

Vernon’s religious activities have been a subject of controversy since they were divulged in a July, 1987, article in The Times. Directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League said then they were concerned that Christian fundamentalism among some ranking members of the department, particularly Vernon, influenced personnel decisions, including promotions and transfers. Officials of the police union also expressed the fear that the situation could erode the Police Department’s image of impartiality toward the public.

The controversy was revived last year when Los Angeles Magazine reported that Vernon, an elder at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley since 1984, had made a number of tapes in 1977 urging wives to submit to their husbands, advocating corporal punishment for disobedient youths and chastising homosexuals. Then, former Assistant Chief Brewer said that Vernon headed a “God squad,” within the department. Brewer’s comments came in testimony before the Christopher Commission investigating the Police Department in the wake of the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

Vernon declined comment Tuesday, referring questions to Casterline. The lawyer maintained that many of the charges were out of date or unspecific.

“We’ve been searching for specific instances of (mis)conduct and haven’t found any,” Casterline said.

But several of the declarations state that Vernon has used his influence as assistant chief, in charge of all police police operations and 85% of the force, to give unfair advantage to his religious followers within the department.

For example, Dotson said that while serving on oral examination boards with Vernon he discovered “that Vernon would increase his test score for certain people, members of his ‘fundamentalist’ church, officers who were aligned with Vernon in the past or officers who embraced or espoused his religion, so as to raise the officer’s average score.”

In a separate interview, Dotson said, “My problem with Vernon is unethical conduct.”

Similar comments about officer ratings came from former LAPD Cmdr. Kenneth G. Hickman, now a college professor. He said Vernon once asked him to raise the rating reports for a “born-again” officer. Hickman added that Vernon told him he believes that “God speaks to us through the police manual.”

On another issue, Brewer, Levant and Parks all said that Vernon attempted to prevent LAPD officers from arresting Operation Rescue demonstrators when they blockaded abortion clinics. However, the officers said Gates countermanded Vernon’s order, which violated Police Department policies.

Levant, who heads the department’s West Bureau, said that in October, 1991, Vernon “harshly criticized” LAPD staff, including him, for being “‘deliberately soft on gays,’ because there were “so few arrests resulting from numerous demonstrations by various gay rights activists in 1991.” Last fall, there were widespread demonstrations after Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed legislation that would have outlawed job discrimination against gays.

Levant emphasized that these demonstrations were “mostly quite peaceful,” but that Vernon “made it clear that he wanted a larger number of gay demonstrators to be arrested, to parallel the arrests of anti-abortion protesters such as the Operation Rescue protesters. . . . Vernon’s dislike for gays and gay demonstrators, based on his religious opposition to homosexuality, is well known within the LAPD and was widely recognized as the source of his improper requests for more arrests of gay demonstrators.”

Levant also recalled that in 1987 he and many other LAPD officers strenuously objected to Vernon’s recommendation “that LAPD officers who are members of the clergy should be authorized to wear their Christian crosses on their uniforms at all times.” Levant said he told Vernon that many non-Christian members of the general public “would be deeply offended by the sight of a Christian cross on an LAPD uniform.”

Times staff writer Rich Connell contributed to this story.

Views on Vernon

Court documents filed by the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday say Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon improperly injected his religious views into department business. The following comments are among the statements taken in sworn declarations from former LAPD officers:

Kenneth G. Hickman was a member of the LAPD from 1962 to 1989, when he retired as a commander. He is now an assistant professor at Cal State LA.

Neil K. Spotts retired as an LAPD detective in 1980. He is now security manager for Playboy Enterprises’ western region. He stated in his declaration that Chief Daryl F. Gates had once asked him to investigate whether Vernon had launched a secret probe intended to topple the chief.