Harassment Suit Findings Sadden Newport Council : Inquiry: Members express confidence in inquiry and that any problems at Police Department can be fixed.

The day after a city-hired investigator revealed that he has found evidence of hostility and sexual harassment at the Police Department, City Council members said they are saddened by the findings but confident of the investigation’s thoroughness and the city’s ability to fix the problems.

Plaintiffs in a civil suit, which alleges that high-ranking members of the department harassed them on and off the job, meanwhile, said they felt vindicated by portions of the preliminary report but expressed outrage at the investigator’s suggestion that some of them may have engaged in sexual harassment.

Also Tuesday, a community service officer joined the lawsuit, bringing to 10 the number of current and former employees of the Police Department who claim that they were sexually harassed by Capt. Anthony Villa and that Chief Arb Campbell knowingly condoned the behavior.

The scandal began Sept. 24 when four women sued Campbell, Villa and the city in Orange County Superior Court. They called the Police Department “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct at the top levels of the command structure.” Since then, six more women have joined the lawsuit, including dispatcher Peri Ropke, who claims Villa and Campbell raped her after a police party in 1981.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy placed the chief and the captain on paid administrative leave after the rape allegations were announced Oct. 15. He also hired Los Angeles lawyer Harold A. Bridges to investigate allegations of sexual harassment at the department, a process that has cost more than $75,000 to date.

City officials said they do not plan to release details of Bridges’ investigation.

“We’re deeply enmeshed in this thing; it’s a sensitive thing and we’re going to make darn sure that what’s done is legally correct, morally correct and ethically correct,” Mayor Clarence J. Turner said Tuesday. “There are just too many people whose lives are on the line here.”

Murphy, who has the authority to fire all police personnel, said Tuesday that a separate investigation into whether to take disciplinary action against Villa or Campbell would be complete “very soon.”

“We have some problems and challenges to correct; we will go about diligently trying to correct them in a logical head-on manner,” Murphy said, declining to elaborate on the report Bridges presented at the City Council meeting Monday night. “We have said from the beginning that after completing the investigation we would honestly and forthrightly indicate what our findings are. Now, we will go about trying to correct those things that we’ve found that we think need correcting.”

In his two-page report to the council Monday, Bridges said his work is “substantially complete” after interviewing 169 people. Assessing the city’s potential liability in the civil suit, he said “a trier of fact might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred.”

In addition, Bridges told the council he had information indicating that “some of the complainants (also) engaged in sexually harassing conduct.” It was this comment that confused and enraged the plaintiffs, who said Tuesday that the city should offer specifics to back up any allegations against them.

“It’s pretty impossible to determine who the heck they’re accusing, and for what,” said Cheryl Vlacilek, 28, a former police officer who was one of the four original complainants.

“How the heck am I supposed to respond to this if I don’t know what it is?” Vlacilek said in a telephone interview. “If the city’s attempting to make some accusations that I did something wrong, then I feel that it’s their duty and my right to bring some charges forward.”

Molly Thomson, a dispatcher who was among four women joining the lawsuit Dec. 1, called the notion of the plaintiffs harassing co-workers “ridiculous.”

“The whole idea of them saying we’re doing that is absurd. . . . How could we have any power over them to harass them?” she said.

The women’s lawyer, Edward Faunce, on Tuesday called Bridges’ comments “preposterous” and said he is “not concerned at all” about the possibility of sexual harassment allegations against his clients.

Murphy, Bridges and several City Council members refused to provide any information regarding the alleged harassment by the women, citing promises of confidentiality to employees Bridges interviewed. They predicted that the information would become public if the lawsuit goes to trial.

“I think you know what sexual harassment is or could be and how it could be defined. It would fall under those categories,” said Murphy, who has received detailed briefings from Bridges as the interviews have progressed. “As to who or what they did, or when they did it, I don’t know if we’re at liberty to say.”

Council members said they are upset that Bridges’ investigation revealed “a generally hostile work environment” at the 250-member department but that because of the pending litigation, they are wary of commenting on the situation.

“I think it’s unfortunate our city is going through this,” Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart said. “I would have been happy for my city if that were not the results.”

Councilman John W. Hedges also said he was “not happy” with what Bridges had discovered, but that he is most upset by the sluggish pace of the process.

Bridges and his two law partners have interviewed all 64 full-time female police personnel; six part-time female employees; 97 full-time male employees; nine of the 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and Villa. The investigation will continue until Bridges has interviewed several more former department employees and Chief Campbell, who canceled an interview Nov. 11 because of health problems and will not be able to meet with Bridges before Jan. 4.

“We made the commitment when this first broke that we would conduct an independent investigation and report the findings and then take the appropriate action if necessary, and we’re doing that,” Hedges said Tuesday. “The only complaint I have about it is that it’s taking so long.”

Councilwoman Jean H. Watt, however, said she believes that Monday’s revelations are just the beginning.

“My real reaction is going to have to wait until we take the next steps,” she said. “The memo leaves everybody wondering what happens next. There’s obviously several steps that are going to be taken here, but they aren’t taken, so what can we say?”

Even as the city wraps up its investigation, the lawsuit continues to grow.

Tuesday, Gloria Miller, a 36-year-old single mother of two who has worked at the Police Department since 1990, joined the lawsuit, contending that she was subjected to “unwanted physical touching, unwanted sexual advances and propositions which created a hostile work environment.”

Court documents charge that Capt. Villa touched and rubbed Miller’s back at work and constantly inquired about her private life. Miller reported the unwanted behavior to her immediate supervisors, but it continued, the lawsuit says.

“He would make statements such as, ‘If you don’t have a boyfriend you must want sex’ . . . (and) ‘Do you like any man on the job? I will get them for you,’ ” the amended complaint says.

Miller “lived in constant fear because of the oppressive and offensive work atmosphere,” according to the documents.