Rape Report Got Officer Fired, Suit Says : Litigation: Former San Clemente policewoman alleges she was terminated in retaliation for saying fellow officer attacked her.

A former San Clemente policewoman whose testimony that she was raped by a colleague led to his conviction filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that police officials fired her in retaliation for reporting the attack.

The woman claimed that various department officials did not help her after she disclosed that she was raped by Officer David Wayne Bryan, 33. Instead, she contended, they conspired to terminate her for reporting the crime even as Bryan remained on the payroll.

The lawsuit named as defendants the City of San Clemente, Police Chief Albert C. Ehlow, Lt. Paul Falk, Capt. Alicia Powers and Sgt. James Thomas. The woman claims emotional distress and seeks unspecified punitive damages, back pay and benefits.

A spokesman with the department declined to comment Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, the district attorney’s office in April, 1991, approached the woman, then a probationary officer, and asked if Bryan had attacked her. At the time, the district attorney’s office was already investigating charges that Bryan had sexually assaulted other women. Instead of talking to the investigators, the woman told Falk about the attack and asked for his advice, the lawsuit said.

Falk reported the rape allegations to Ehlow and “after determining . . . that the crime remained a secret,” the chief “did nothing,” the lawsuit said.

A month later, at the end of her probationary period, the woman was told that her job performance was below standard and was fired, the lawsuit said.

The woman contends in her lawsuit that she was fired in retaliation for disclosing the rape and that department officials violated her rights as a victim of a crime.

After the termination, the woman reported the rape to prosecutors.

In December, she testified in Superior Court that Bryan attacked her in June, 1990, after they completed a night shift. The woman said Bryan asked to see her house under the pretext that he might want to rent it. There, she testified, he raped her in her bedroom.

Bryan was convicted of raping the woman and sexually battering another woman he met while on duty. He was sentenced in January to seven years in prison.