SIMI VALLEY : City Rejects Claim Filed by Ex-Officer

The city of Simi Valley has rejected a civil claim filed by a former police officer who alleged that he was wrongly arrested last autumn and held for 14 days on suspicion of raping a woman in 1989.

City Manager Lin Koester said the city attorney’s office rejected former officer Paul A. Nolan’s claim for lost wages and other damages, but he declined to say more.

“I’m not going to comment since they’re personnel items and there’s possibly litigation involved,” Koester said Tuesday.

Simi Valley Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller also declined to comment on the case, saying it was a confidential personnel matter. Neither Nolan nor his attorney, Stuart Adams, could be reached for comment.

Civil claims are often filed against cities as precursors to civil lawsuits.

Nolan, 31, had filed the claim against the city, Koester, Miller and suspended Lt. Robert Klamser in April, five months after his arrest.

On Nov. 18, Nolan met the 36-year-old woman in the parking lot of his apartment complex, the claim said.

The woman, wearing a wireless radio transmitter, accused Nolan of raping her nearly 3 1/2 years earlier, but Nolan denied the accusation, the claim said.

Moments later, Klamser and other officers moved in and arrested him, holding him on suspicion of rape. Nolan was put on paid administrative leave shortly after and fired Dec. 10 for unrelated reasons that department officials will not discuss.

A Ventura County Municipal Court judge dismissed the case Jan. 28 after it was revealed that the woman had had a sexual relationship with Nolan before the alleged incident and that the two had exchanged gifts and Christmas cards afterward.