Inquiry Finds Merit in Sex Harassment Suit : Litigation: But special city attorney also says women plaintiffs in Newport Beach case may have engaged in such conduct themselves.

A special city attorney hired to investigate civil suit charges of sexual harassment in the Newport Beach Police Department has concluded that a judge indeed “might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred,” but added that the women who filed the suit may have themselves “engaged in sexually harassing conduct.”

Calling his investigation “substantially complete,” Los Angeles attorney Harold A. Bridges, who has spent two months questioning 169 members of the embattled Police Department, promised to soon provide a complete report to the Newport Beach City Council along with recommendations for improving the department’s working atmosphere.

“The interviews revealed information from which a trier of fact might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred,” Bridges said Monday in his first public comments on the investigation since city officials asked him to step in.

Bridges was hired by the city after four current and former employees of the Police Department filed a suit Sept. 24 alleging that Capt. Anthony Villa sexually harassed them on and off the job and that Villa’s close friend and boss, Chief Arb Campbell, did nothing to prevent it. Since then, five more women have joined the suit, including a dispatcher who contends that she was raped by Campbell and Villa after a Police Department party in 1981.

But the special attorney told the City Council that the plaintiffs in the suit also may have displayed sexually harassing conduct.

“Wholly apart from sex,” Bridges continued, “a substantial number of those interviewed believed there to be a hostile work environment. In many cases a generally hostile work environment is conducive to the creation of a sexually hostile work environment.”

Bruce Praet, the lawyer representing Campbell and Villa in the suit, said he was not surprised by Bridge’s findings of potential sexual harassment by the women.

“We know an awful lot about these complainants that the city has not chosen to either investigate or show any interest in,” he said. “A lot of what we have been able to discover indicates that not only are most of their allegations false, there is substantial evidence to say that they have engaged in conduct equal or worse than that which they are alleging.”

Neither Bridges nor City Manager Kevin J. Murphy would elaborate on findings regarding the women’s behavior or whether any action might be taken against them.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys blasted the city Tuesday for making vague, unsubstantiated charges that the women may have sexually harassed co-workers.

“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. “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. How the heck am I supposed to respond to this if I don’t know what it is?”

“The plaintiffs would love to respond but they’re unable to because of the vagueness and the obscurity of his allegations,” said Beno Hernandez, a partner in Law Enforcement Representation & Associates, a firm that assisted in the lawsuit. “At least they should give some facts so (the women) can respond. That’s the basic principle of our Constitution.”

Murphy placed Villa and Campbell on paid administrative leave Oct. 15. Two weeks later, the police employees’ association announced an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the chief.

The city attorney launched a separate personnel investigation Dec. 3 to determine “what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken” in connection with the sexual harassment charges.

Representatives for both sides said they were neither surprised nor satisfied with the city’s preliminary report or with the investigation as a whole.

“It doesn’t seem as though they’ve come any further in concluding that my clients have done anything wrong,” Praet said. “I am assured by my clients that there is absolutely no merit to any of the allegations. This report does not seem to disclose any.”

Hernandez was pleased with the city finding but said he expected much more evidence to come out of the investigation. The city, Hernandez said, is “obligated by law, obligated by morals and ethics, to do something. To right the wrong, they have to . . . cut the cancer out. The only way to do that is to start with the chief and the captain.”

Correspondent Mimi Ko contributed to this story.