Angry Women Vow to Go On Suing Newport : Scandal: Several police employees said the city betrayed them by retiring with full benefits the chief and a captain it had fired in sex harassment case.

Angered by the city’s handling of a sexual harassment scandal in the Police Department, several female officers who are suing the department accused city leaders on Friday of betraying them and vowed to press ahead with their own civil lawsuit.

“It just makes me sick what they did,” said Margaret McInnis, a police communications supervisor who is a plaintiff in the harassment suit. “It’s just reinforcing the same old thing that there’s this one little network that sticks together.”

The city reached an agreement on Thursday with fired Police Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Anthony J. Villa Jr., allowing them to retire with benefits and be represented by city-paid attorneys in the case, in exchange for the two officers dropping wrongful termination suits against the city.

As part of the pact, the city also declared that it had found “no corroborated evidence” that Campbell sexually harassed employees or condoned such behavior, as had been alleged. The agreement, approved by the City Council, contained no such statement about Villa.

Ten past and present female employees of the city’s Police Department, including McInnis, are suing the city, alleging that Villa harassed them sexually and that Campbell knowingly condoned the captain’s offensive behavior.

The suit describes the department as “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct,” and one of the plaintiffs has alleged that Campbell and Villa raped her during a drunken department party in 1981.

Campbell and Villa have denied the allegations, and Bruce Praet, attorney for the two men, said Friday that this week’s agreement with the two former officers marks a long-overdue acknowledgment by the city that the charges are essentially groundless.

“The allegations never had any evidence to support them, and we’re just pleased that the city has reached the same conclusion,” he said. “I think the city took a closer look at their investigation and perhaps it realized it would have been difficult to prove there was any harassment against these women.”

But criticism of the agreement only intensified in some quarters Friday, as several of the women who are plaintiffs in the case spoke out for the first time about the settlement.

“It’s very frustrating, very frustrating,” said plaintiff Mary Jane Ruetz, a records supervisor in the department who is now on medical leave. “It seems to me like the city kind of went back on their word to us. They said they were going to fix what was wrong, and they didn’t. Nothing’s changed.”

Ruetz and other plaintiffs maintained that the city’s agreement with Campbell and Villa represented a turnaround from the findings in a report to the City Council last December, when the council announced that an inquiry found evidence of sexual harassment on the force and recommended reforms.

Since then, “the city’s done a complete 180,” said McInnis, the communications supervisor.

By announcing that no allegations were corroborated against Campbell, she said, “they’re saying all these things didn’t happen. That’s what they’re saying.”

A third plaintiff, who asked not to be identified, said she had come to expect such turnarounds from the city. “I’m shocked and I’m outraged, but at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me that the city did this, because it’s just another cover-up.”

All three plaintiffs interviewed Friday, along with their attorney, Steven Pingel of Seal Beach, said they will press on with their lawsuit despite this week’s settlement.

“This won’t have any effect one way or another on our civil suit. Ultimately, the city’s going to be told by a jury what real justice is all about,” Pingel said. “Anyone with any intelligence, reading between the lines of this settlement, knows there’s something rotten in Denmark, or rotten in Newport Beach.”

Pingel insisted that the agreement was the result of “extortion” since Campbell and Villa in past months had threatened to expose wrongdoing by City Council members and employees. “I think there’s some people who have something to hide, and Campbell probably knows it, or Villa,” Pingel said.

But city officials maintained that the main motivation behind Thursday’s agreement was financial. By ending the threat of protracted litigation with Campbell and Villa over their firings, officials said, the city could save $500,000 in legal costs.

The threat of public criticism never played a part in the city’s consideration of the settlement, said City Manager Kevin Murphy.

“We were not really conscious of (public reaction) because the facts dictated what the city should do,” he said.

The city had received medical reports from physicians hired by the city that indicated Campbell and Villa would qualify for disability under state labor codes, even if the city did not agree to the settlement, Murphy said. Campbell has been treated for hypertension and Villa re-injured his neck last year, officials said.

“That played a major factor” in deciding to settle, Murphy said.

Mayor Clarence Turner said his office received five or six calls from residents Friday about the settlement, several of whom were simply confused about its terms.

“I do think people will have difficulty understanding this. There was a lot of confusion” from callers, Turner said. But he added, “We expected reaction from the citizens.”

From members of the 10-4 Club, a police support group in Newport Beach, the reaction was all positive.

“Anything to further the end of this particular issue is very, very appropriate,” said Richard Luehrs, a 10-4 member who is president of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce. “The whole issue has been very disruptive to the city. It’s been negative press that we’re not interested in, and these kinds of headlines detract from our good reputation.

“We’re all just interested in moving forward,” he said.