Newport Police Chief, Aide Accused of Rape : Allegation: Dispatcher says both men assaulted her at a party 11 years ago. Accuser joins sex harassment suit.

A police dispatcher charged Thursday that Chief Arb Campbell and a police captain both raped her 11 years ago during a drunken party at an Orange County landfill and have threatened her job repeatedly over the years if she ever told anyone.

Newport Beach City Manager Kevin J. Murphy reacted to the woman’s charges less than three hours later by placing both Campbell and Capt. Anthony Villa on paid administrative leave and naming a new acting chief, Capt. Jim Jacobs.

The action came one day after the embattled police chief, already the target of a sexual harassment lawsuit, announced that he would retire at the conclusion of 28 years on the force next May.

Neither Campbell nor Villa could be reached to comment on the latest accusations, but their attorney said they were “very disappointed at the city’s decision” to put them on administrative leave, because “the obvious inference that most people will draw from this action . . . is that there’s a hint of merit to these allegations and there isn’t.”

Dispatcher Peri Ropke, 33, made the rape allegation as she joined the lawsuit previously filed by four current and former female employees of the Newport Beach Police Department who have charged they were sexually harassed on and off the job by Villa, and that his close friend Campbell condoned it.

“Working for Arb and Tony for the last 11 years . . . was very difficult. I was constantly in fear,” Ropke said in a brief interview with The Times prior to a press conference where she read a two-sentence statement. It concluded: “I hope that by coming forward other women will have the courage to do the same.”

At a hastily called afternoon press conference a few hours after Ropke’s, Murphy met with reporters in Newport Beach City Hall and read the following statement, refusing to answer questions.

“I’ve decided that it is in the best interests of the city, the Police Department, Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Tony Villa that I place Chief Campbell and Capt. Villa on paid administrative leave, and I’ve done so this afternoon,” Murphy stated.

“I am not, by this action, passing any judgment upon Chief Campbell and Capt. Villa. However, my decision is based upon the allegations of serious misconduct and the impact those allegations have on the ability to manage the department and perform their duties. I continue to have the utmost confidence in the men and women of the Newport Beach Police Department, and I know they will continue to faithfully and diligently execute their duties.”

Mayor Phil Sansone said the City Council had approved Murphy’s decision to put both men on paid leave and expressed concern about the lawsuit’s impact on police morale. “That’s why we are bringing Jacobs on, to calm things down,” Sansone said after Murphy’s press conference. “We certainly can’t have a police force that’s completely demoralized.”

Bruce Praet, the city-paid lawyer representing Campbell and Villa, said they deny any sexual contact with Ropke, and he called her claim of an affair with Villa “a fantasy.” Ropke’s attorney said that Ropke and Villa had “an intimate relationship” for five months before the alleged rape ended their affair.

“We’re tired of these complainants trying this case in the media,” Praet said after the two press conferences.

“We’re going to respond on our own, and set these people for independent psychiatric evaluation which, we think--especially in Ropke’s case--will be very enlightening. We will be setting depositions (to) force these people to make these allegations under penalty of perjury, instead of through the mouths of their attorneys.”

At a morning press conference, Ropke’s attorney, Steven R. Pingel, announced that the sexual harassment lawsuit he had filed on behalf of the four original plaintiffs had been amended to include Ropke’s claims and was filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court.

According to the amended lawsuit, these were the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape:

Working for the department as a 22-year-old police dispatcher at the time, Ropke got off work one July evening and went to a Police Department party held at the former county landfill near Bonita Canyon, which is just inside the city limits of neighboring Irvine. She arrived about 2 a.m.

Alcohol was provided at the party, and Ropke “consumed beer and tequila,” the lawsuit states.

Around 4 a.m., then-Sgt. Villa offered to drive Ropke home from the dump because he and then-Capt. Campbell believed she was drunk, the suit claims. Villa escorted her to Campbell’s pickup truck and she got in with some difficulty because her ankle, which had been sprained, was encased in a plastic cast. She was surprised when Villa pushed her to the middle of the seat as he got into the passenger side of the cab, with Campbell climbing behind the wheel.

Instead of driving her home, the lawsuit alleges, Campbell drove to a remote area of the dump.

Ropke contends that Villa forced her into the truck’s camper and that Campbell followed. Both men “started removing plaintiff’s blouse and fondling her breasts. At the same time, Villa tore her pants off. Plaintiff, still crying and in shock, submitted to the force used by both Villa and Campbell,” the lawsuit states.

“Plaintiff was then compelled to submit to various sex acts, against her will, and was raped by both Campbell and Villa.”

“After the forced sex acts were completed,” the lawsuit contends, “Campbell and Villa left the camper, leaving plaintiff crying, in a state of shock and naked in the rear of the camper. Villa got out and walked back to the party.”

Campbell, the lawsuit says, drove out of the dump while Ropke was trying to dress and went to the Newport police station. In the station parking lot, the lawsuit contends, Campbell ordered Ropke out of the camper and “threatening retaliation . . . told her never to discuss what happened with anybody. He then drove off.”

For the next 10 years, the lawsuit claims, Campbell and Villa told Ropke to be “a good girl” and “keep her mouth shut.” Villa warned her that Campbell was a force to be reckoned with, a politically connected and ambitious officer who was destined to become chief, and that Villa would ride his coattails, according to the lawsuit.

“I will move up with him,” it quotes Villa threatening, “so don’t tell anyone what happened.”

Senior Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Bauer said Thursday that no criminal charges could be brought in such a case as the rape allegations because an accusation, under the statute of limitations, must be made within six years of the purported rape.

Pingel did not apologize for his client failing to report the alleged rapes for 11 years and said he would not pretend he could psychoanalyze her silence. He said that Ropke stayed on at the department because she had nowhere else to go as a 22-year-old, and pointed out that women who are sexually harassed often feel a loss of control, a sense of shame and powerlessness, and therefore remain silent.

The lawsuit alleges that Ropke was subjected on many occasions to threats and “rewards” by the defendants in return for her silence. One of the reasons she stayed at the Police Department was that she had been awarded a city grant to attend college, which she felt would enable her to get a better job elsewhere.

Ropke was put on medical leave last Friday--the morning after her former roommate mentioned the alleged rape to a lawyer hired by the city to investigate the lawsuit’s original allegations. City officials, including City Manager Murphy and Chief Campbell, then learned of the rape allegation.

Murphy would not answer questions after his Thursday press conference but said Wednesday he knew of no new allegations that might have prompted Campbell to announce his decision to retire next May. He also said he did not believe there was any connection between Campbell’s retirement announcement and the sexual harassment allegations.

Pingel, the women’s attorney, said he was astounded that anyone would maintain there was no link between the newly uncovered rape allegation and Campbell’s retirement announcement. He also said he was confident that the women’s charges would prove founded.

“I believe corroborating evidence (of the rape) will be found. A lot will be developed in the months ahead.” He added later that other witnesses will confirm her story. “It has been known around the department for years.”

The controversy that has embroiled the Newport Beach Police Department surfaced on Sept. 24, when four current and former employees, including two sworn officers, sued Campbell and Villa in Orange County Superior Court, seeking damages in excess of $200,000 each. They allege that they had been sexually harassed by Villa and that Campbell, who owns property with Villa in Riverside County, did nothing to stop Villa’s alleged misconduct.

Villa is specifically accused of harassing the women on and off duty with suggestive remarks and physical contact, such as touching them on their breasts and elsewhere. All the women contend they were discriminated against in their careers and were either fired or disciplined after complaining officially of sexual harassment.

Two of the women who were fired won reinstatement to their jobs when they appealed their cases to the city’s civil service board.

“It was only a matter of time that some kind of courage would overcome this tyranny,” said Mary Jane Ruetz, a police records supervisor and one of the four original plaintiffs, “and I really thank God that Peri had the courage to do it.”

The amended lawsuit contends that Ropke was aware that “Villa and Campbell have destroyed employment opportunities for other Police Department employees and she was afraid they would do the same to her.”

It states that when Ropke applied for a federal government job, Villa reminded her that he and Campbell had control over the fate of her performance evaluations. The lawsuit contends that since rumors of the sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuit began swirling about the police station, several events occurred that cemented Ropke’s belief that she would continue to be retaliated against for the rape 11 years ago.

Pingel said the fact that Ropke waited 11 years to report the rape should not cast doubt on the truth of her allegations, and he pointed to the problems that many women have in reporting allegations of rape and sexual harassment.

Rape counselors, sex crime experts and prosecutors say that many rape victims never report the crime to authorities, especially if the perpetrator is in a position of power over them.

A 1992 Los Angeles Times survey of crime victimization indicated that only about one in four rapes is ever reported to police, and prosecutors assigned to sex crime units believe that the number of undisclosed rapes might even be higher.

The district attorney’s Bauer, who supervises sex crime prosecutions, said that as few as one-fifth or even one-tenth of all rapes are ever reported to the police, and rapes where the perpetrator is an acquaintance of the victim are the least reported of all.

But rape counselors say that it is not uncommon for the victims to eventually report the rapes, even years after the fact or when they feel assured they are in a situation where they will be believed.

“I’ve had people call me and it’s been 50 years since the rape and it’s the first time they’ve told anybody,” said Julie Dodge, executive director of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency in Long Beach. “After the shock goes off, people often go into a phase of reconstitution and try to get on with their normal life. . . They want to forget about it because it’s just too painful to talk about.”

Feelings of powerlessness, Dodge said, can result particularly if the rape is committed by someone in a position of authority, such as a supervisor at work, or a parent in the case of incest. Counselors say that situations similar to Ropke’s allegations are not uncommon.

“The implicit power differential between an employer and employee is a good enough reason for her (Ropke) to remain silent,” said Christine Leon, director of the Women’s Resource Center, a rape prevention and education program at UC Irvine.

“It really puts the victim in a large quandary,” Bauer said. “Many victims choose to just protect themselves from it happening again and avoid the division that it will cause in their family or circle or friends. . . . A rape victim has lost something that they hold emotionally, socially, psychologically and spiritually (dear), something that’s very sacred. Many women want to avoid the stigma of being labeled as a rape victim.”

Staff writers Greg Hernandez and Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.