Newport Police 10-4 Club Says Over and Out : Law enforcement: The leader of the civilians and officers support group says officials hinted they wanted the organization to disband. The city manager and chief deny that.

The 10-4 Club, a police support group that came under attack during the sexual harassment scandal in the Police Department last year, has disbanded after 21 years, club members said Friday.

Bill Lusk, the club’s president, said City Manager Kevin J. Murphy and Police Chief Robert J. McDonell in recent months told him that the services provided by the club, such as buying equipment and hosting an annual awards luncheon for police officers, were no longer needed.

However, Murphy and McDonell said they never asked for the dismantling of the loose-knit club, whose membership included about 30 business people in the city. The two officials and City Atty. Robert Burnham met with Lusk last month and were surprised when he informed them the club was breaking up, Murphy said.

“He said that the 10-4 Club was defunct and that it was going to cease to exist,” Murphy said. “We were surprised, and we had no intention of asking them to disband. . . . They had been around for many, many years and--both as a group and as individuals--they have been very generous with the department.”

In an interview Friday, Lusk, a developer, acknowledged that city officials never asked that the group disband. He said, however, that he felt the Police Department had been hinting that the club be abolished as early as October, 1992, after sexual harassment allegations surfaced. At the time, interim Police Chief Jim Jacobs canceled the annual awards luncheon that the 10-4 Club had sponsored for 20 years.

When Lusk talked to McDonell in August about having the luncheon this year, the police chief “told us we’re not going to be used any more,” Lusk said. “The 10-4 is at the beck and call of the chief, and if the chief tells you he’s not going to call you ever again, well, we have no other reason to exist.”

In response, McDonell, who has been chief since August, said he met with Lusk to talk about the club’s relationship with the Police Department and discuss ways the two could work together.

“We had a candid discussion about my observations about the issues surrounding the 10-4 Club and the desire on our part to revise the criteria to determine who’s qualified for the awards” handed out during the luncheon, McDonell said.

McDonell said he suggested that the awards luncheon be pushed back for some months to allow time to heal some of the rifts between the officers and members of the club who supported former Police Chief Arb Campbell, who was ousted amid charges of sexual harassment in the department. The meeting ended with Lusk saying he would think over some of McDonell’s observation and suggestions, McDonell said.

It was during their second meeting in October, McDonell said, that Lusk said the group was folding.

“We said that’s really not necessary,” McDonell recalled. “I told (Lusk) that the last thing that I wanted to do was alienate the people who belong to the 10-4 Club and that I value their support.”

For the past month, Murphy and McDonell have been meeting with officials of the Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce to discuss launching another support group to recognize the work of police officers.

Richard Luehrs, the chamber president and a 12-year member of the 10-4 Club, is working with the city to help form a new booster group. Luehrs said Friday that the 10-4 Club’s demise is a “tragedy.”

Lusk formed the 10-4 Club in 1971. Before McDonell’s arrival at the Police Department, the organization had worked with three different chiefs. The group was praised for its unwavering support of the department and its role as the liaison between the officers and the business community.

But last year, the organization came under criticism, because some members criticized Murphy and city officials for the way they handled the investigation into allegations that then-Chief Campbell and Police Capt. Tony Villa had raped a police dispatcher 11 years ago. The results of that investigation were not disclosed by the city.

Along with the dispatcher, nine current and former female employees have filed a lawsuit against the city and the Police Department, charging that Campbell condoned sexual harassment of them by Villa.

Murphy fired Campbell and Villa after a four-month investigation. The city rehired the men in June and immediately retired them, giving them full retirement benefits.

During the investigation, when Campbell was suspended with pay, some members of the 10-4 Club unsuccessfully lobbied for his reinstatement. Those members did so as individuals and as personal friends of Campbell, Lusk said Friday, not as representatives of the organization.

“We are not an Art Campbell support club, no way,” said Lusk. But “many of us were personally outraged at the treatment he received--and still are.”

The club last month hosted a retirement party for Campbell. Around that time, Lusk retrieved from the Police Department a plaque and two medals of valor the 10-4 Club had given to the department years before. Lusk then gave the memorabilia to Campbell and his wife, Lavonne.

“It’s a personal gift from Bill Lusk to give to Arb and Lavonne Campbell for the great services they had given to the community,” Lusk said.