Campbell, Villa Legal Bills Irk Newport Officials : Litigation: Council members will discuss whether to continue paying. Fired officers’ lawyer says city is required to do so.

With legal bills approaching $200,000 in connection with the sexual harassment charges made against the Police Department last fall, officials are questioning whether the city must continue to pay for the defense of fired Police Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Anthony J. Villa Jr.

Although Campbell and Villa’s attorney maintains that the city is required by law to pay the tab, City Council members said they will discuss whether to continue paying for the defense at a meeting on Monday.

“It’s my personal opinion that we should cut off any more expenditures as quickly as we can,” Mayor Clarence J. Turner said. “I believe we are not responsible for their legal fees.”

Because Campbell and Villa were on the city payroll at the time of the alleged harassment, says their attorney Bruce Praet, the city must defend them if the lawsuit concerns actions taken in the course of performing their duties. So even though a city-funded, independent investigation has found some merit to the sexual harassment claims, Praet says, public money must still be spent to defend the pair against a sexual harassment suit filed against them and the city in September.

“It’s a little tough,” admitted City Manager Kevin J. Murphy. “We’re caught in the middle with the checkbook.”

The bills began Sept. 24 when four current and former female officers sued the city, Campbell and Villa claiming sexual harassment. Since then, six more women have joined the suit, Campbell has filed a separate action in federal court, a city-hired attorney has conducted a separate investigation into the sexual harassment claims, and the city has fired both Campbell and Villa.

Every one of those actions added to the city’s legal bills, which are being paid to three separate law firms.

About two-thirds of what has been spent so far on the legal mess was for the city’s fact-finding investigation. But bills continue for the defense of Campbell and Villa, as well as for the city’s own defense in both the women’s lawsuit and Campbell’s claim. Further costs may come if Campbell and Villa, as promised, file additional lawsuits alleging that their firings were unjustified.

“I think it’s incredible,” Councilman John W. Hedges said. “It’s money that apparently has to be spent, but it’s a crying shame that the city or any employer has to spend that kind of money to investigate.”

The expenses far exceed the $43,500 set aside for outside counsel in the city attorney’s budget.

At the close of 1992, the city had paid $135,537 to Burke, Williams & Sorensen, the law firm that conducted the city’s investigation, interviewing more than 170 department employees, including all women and all supervisors except Campbell.

Another $38,277 was paid to R. Craig Scott, an attorney who will defend the city in the sexual harassment lawsuit and who will also defend the city against Campbell’s federal lawsuit, which accuses the city of violating his civil rights by improperly placing him on an unpaid leave and of conducting a “witch hunt.” (Campbell is paying the attorney who filed this suit.)

Praet, attorney for Campbell and Villa in the sexual harassment suit, has been paid $13,181.

Though City Council members would like to stop paying Praet’s fees, the attorney says they have no choice.

“The only way the city could deny Arb or Tony a defense is if the acts that are alleged were outside the course and scope of their employment,” Praet said. “If these alleged acts occurred outside course and scope of employment, then you don’t have sexual harassment. Sexual harassment has to be an official act of the employer.”

Murphy acknowledged that the law requires the city to defend employees who are sued for activities that happen on the job but said the city is weighing whether the claims fall under the course-and-scope stipulation. Another way in which the city might avoid payment is to show that the alleged acts were committed maliciously, Murphy said.

As for the fact that the city is now paying to defend Campbell and Villa, as well as to defend against them, Murphy conceded that “it’s a little unusual.”

John Lewis, an attorney who helped the women bring the lawsuit, called it “a shame that the city now has to turn around and defend” Campbell and Villa.

In addition, the expensive fact-finding investigation has been criticized from both sides. So far the city has released only a two-page report on the expensive inquiry, which concluded that “a trier of fact might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred” at the department.

“It was predestined,” Praet said of the report’s finding, reiterating his call for an independent commission to examine the sexual harassment claims. “There was no way the city could have (done) the investigation and not end up disciplining Arb and Tony.”

Lewis called the two-page report “a joke.”

“I thought there was going to be some formal report, some recommendations,” Lewis said. “The report . . . was so vague and ambiguous that it raised more questions than it answered.”