Deadline Set on Villa’s Response to Firing : Inquiry: Police captain has until Feb. 15 to reply to Newport Beach. Lawsuit alleges a rape, sex harassment.

Capt. Anthony Villa, accused of rape and sexual harassment in a lawsuit by 10 current and former female employees of the Police Department, has until Feb. 15 to respond to the city’s decision to fire him.

Nearly a month after they moved to fire Villa, city officials expected to finish delivering the material supporting their charges Friday. But as of 5 p.m., Villa’s attorney had still not received the package.

Civil service employees who face discipline typically have seven to 10 days to respond to their employer’s charges once they receive all the supporting evidence. Villa and his attorney, Jeffrey Epstein, however, had requested an extension until mid-March because there was so much material. But the city decided Friday to set the deadline at Feb. 15.

Epstein said Friday that he had thus far received about 40 pages of testimony against Villa. Based on the city’s explanation of the charges against Villa, Epstein said he expects there is about three times that yet to come.

Epstein said the city listed 15 to 20 charges against Villa, and that he had so far received material supporting only a few of those. He said he had not yet received all the material to support any specific charge.

None of the documents delivered so far have dealt with sexual harassment, Epstein said.

City officials refused to discuss the number or nature of the charges, or the material supporting their claims, saying that all personnel matters are confidential.

Villa was accused along with former Police Chief Arb Campbell of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court by four women Sept. 24. Since then, six more women have joined the suit, including a dispatcher who claims Villa and Campbell raped her after a police party in 1981.

A city-hired attorney conducted an investigation of the sexual harassment charges, and after nearly 170 interviews with department employees concluded that “a trier of fact might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred.” The city then launched a separate investigation into whether to discipline Villa, and moved to fire him Dec. 18.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy fired Campbell, who is not entitled to the same appeal process as Villa, on Dec. 22.

Villa remains on the payroll until Feb. 15.

Once his attorney presents a written response to Murphy, the city must decide whether to sustain its decision to fire Villa. Then Villa can appeal the decision to the Civil Service Board.

Members of the National Organization for Women and the plaintiffs have complained that the city is moving too slowly in firing Villa.

“This (is) yet another example of sexual discrimination in application of city policy,” Kimberly Wilson, who chairs the Bayview NOW sexual harassment task force, told the City Council on Monday. “The women involved in the suit who were unjustly fired were only given seven to 10 days to respond, had their salaries stopped, and were forced to seek out and pay for their own legal counsel in order to be reinstated; yet Anthony Villa is still receiving his full captain’s pay and attorney’s fees. This must stop.”

But Murphy said the extended response period was justified “based on the volume of stuff” the city had filed against Villa.

“We’re going to dot every i and cross every t to make sure what we’re doing is legally correct,” he said. “Mr. Villa, as everybody else, has due process rights, and we’re going to make sure we adhere to it.”