Inquiry Finds ‘No Evidence’ of Police Sex Club : Suit: Chief says internal investigation finds nothing to substantiate charges against Irvine officers by two female employees suing the agency.

A police investigation has found “absolutely no evidence” to substantiate charges that some officers had sex with women in the back seats of patrol cars and formed a club to celebrate their exploits, Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck said Wednesday.

“I hope that this is definitely behind us now and that we can continue our day-to-day business at the department,” Brobeck said.

The police internal-affairs investigation began last week after the charges were leveled by two female employees who are suing the department for sexual harassment and discrimination.

The women, Pamela Fuehrer and Abbe Taylor, alleged that for at least eight years, some officers publicly bragged about having sex while on duty. They also claimed that officers who had intercourse in the back seats of their patrol cars could join a Code Four Club and receive special lapel pins. Code Four is a police term that means an officer is all right.

The investigation confirmed that some officers did own Code Four Club pins, which were produced seven years ago as a side business by two Irvine officers hoping to capitalize on the popularity of such police-related lapel pins.

But investigators found nothing to indicate that such a club ever existed or that the pins were related in any way to sexual misconduct, according to a statement released Wednesday by Brobeck and City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr.

The investigation found that in June, 1986, the two officers “acting alone and without departmental knowledge or approval” designed pins bearing the Code Four Club logo. The officers manufactured and sold the pins to others in the department “as part of a personal profit-making venture,” according to the city statement.

Brobeck said such pins are regularly traded at law-enforcement conferences and training seminars, and that many officers enjoy collecting them. The Code Four Club pins might have been produced for trading during a Police Olympics event in Newport Beach that year, he said.

Attorney Steve R. Pingel, who represents Fuehrer and Taylor, said he was unswayed by the report.

“I am not at all surprised that a department internal-affairs investigation did not produce evidence of a Code Four Club,” he said. “I believe it exists and will produce evidence at the time of a trial.”

Pingel refused to elaborate.

Reaction from city officials was more positive.

“I was really glad to find out that what I thought about the Police Department is true,” Mayor Michael Ward said Wednesday. “I hope it points out to people that if we hear of charges, we are going jump on it and investigate immediately.”

Dozens of former and current city employees were interviewed as part of the investigation, which was complicated by the fact that the pins were made seven years ago, Brobeck said.

“This is so old that we had to do some digging,” the chief said. “We had to reconstruct events. (The pins) were not a significant thing for people to remember.”

Brobeck said that he issued a “clear directive” this week requiring that officers receive his permission before producing pins, patches or anything else representing the Police Department. Officers would also need his permission to sell such items inside the department.

Detective Henry Boggs, president of the Irvine Police Assn., said the allegations have “angered and saddened” many officers, who have endured jokes by radio disc jockeys about the department ever since the allegations surfaced on June 22. “That never goes away,” Brobeck said.

“I hope what this does is turn the corner,” he said. “I don’t know what tactical approach the plaintiffs will take and what will happen next.”