Fired Officers to Sue for Their Legal Fees : Litigation: Newport Beach’s fired police chief and a captain want the city to resume paying their attorney for defense in sexual harassment case brought by 10 women.

Attorneys for fired Police Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Anthony J. Villa said they will file documents this morning demanding that the city pay for the officers’ defense in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by 10 women.

The city stopped paying Bruce Praet, Campbell and Villa’s defense attorney, on Jan. 28, saying the alleged sexual harassment was beyond the scope of the officers’ work, involved malice, and that the case presents a conflict of interest between the city and the officers.

The plaintiffs, current and former female Police Department employees, allege in the lawsuit that Villa made lewd remarks and inappropriate gestures to several women, that Campbell knowingly condoned the behavior, and that both men raped a dispatcher after a police party in 1981.

After a three-month investigation into sexual harassment at the Police Department, city officials in December fired Campbell and took steps to fire Villa, and then halted payment of the pair’s legal fees. The city has also paid more than $20,000 to six women who are not involved in the suit but who told investigators that they, too, had been harassed.

Praet already had collected more than $13,000 from the city in connection with the suit, which was filed in September in Orange County Superior Court. He continues to represent Campbell and Villa without compensation.

The city, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, has spent more than $200,000 in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy is reviewing proposals from three local firms who have offered to provide sexual harassment training for the city’s work force. He said he expects to select a firm next week and plans to start the training in March.

Though the firms have not outlined their specific training plans or estimated the cost, “There’s no doubt that this will be an expensive undertaking,” Murphy said.

Police Department supervisors will be the first to undergo training, but the city’s entire 750-member work force will participate.

Members of the National Organization for Women’s local sexual harassment task force have repeatedly criticized Murphy for slow action on the harassment training, and recently fired off a letter to acting Police Chief Jim Jacobs citing continued problems at the department.

After a meeting last week with Jacobs and Capts. Mike Blitch and Glen Petersen, NOW members said they are concerned that while police officials profess sensitivity, harassment persists.

NOW members demanded that a notice be posted in the Police Department saying that sexual harassment is illegal, and that the procedure for reporting sexual harassment complaints be changed.