Court Upholds Firing of Officer for Affair : Simi Valley: Kevin Medley was terminated for his relationship with a Scout. The couple haven’t decided whether to appeal.

A Ventura County Superior Court judge has upheld the firing of a Simi Valley police officer who had an ongoing sexual relationship with a 17-year-old Explorer Scout.

Former Officer Kevin Medley, 36, lost his bid this week to be rehired, paid lost wages and cleared in personnel records when Judge Edwin M. Osborne ruled that the officer was fired for just cause.

Medley could not be reached for comment Thursday. But his lawyer’s office said the officer and the Scout, who were married 11 days before Medley was fired in October, 1992, have not decided whether to appeal.

“Right now, they’re just going to consider their options,” said a law clerk for attorney Darryl Mounger, who declined to give his name. “They have not decided on their next course of action.”

Police Chief Lindsey Paul Miller said Thursday, “I felt initially that his discharge was the correct thing to do under the circumstances and I still do. And I’m pleased the court ruled in our favor.”

Medley had served on the Simi Valley Police Department for three years until he was fired Oct. 28, 1992. Officials ruled that his affair with the 17-year-old girl violated the statutory rape law and department policy against officers socializing with the department’s Explorer Scouts.

Medley met the girl while she was a member of the Explorer Scout program, which gives youths ages 14 to 20 a background in law enforcement.

He later testified in a hearing over his firing that he believed the girl was over 18 because she had a job, a bank account with an automated teller machine card and a car she had bought, according to court records.

Medley also testified that he thought the girl was of legal age because she was enrolled in college and not subject to any restrictions at home, records said.

Chief Miller recommended the city fire Medley after the affair was discovered, and City Manager Lin Koester terminated the officer.

In April, a state appeals mediator recommended the city rehire Medley, but Koester stood by his earlier decision to fire the officer.

Despite the allegation that Medley broke a state law against adults having sex with minors, prosecutors did not file a case against Medley after the girl’s parents refused to press charges.

The girl, now 18, married Medley on Oct. 17, 1992, with her parents serving as witnesses.

Medley petitioned the Ventura County Superior Court to have his job back, his lost wages and legal fees paid and his record cleared of any references to the affair and the department’s investigation.

His petition argued that the firing was an excessive penalty, and that Koester’s final ruling was not supported by the evidence presented at the appeal hearing last April.

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But on Monday, Judge Osborne ruled that there was enough evidence to believe Medley’s affair with the girl violated state law, and that he knew or should have known she was not 18, said Stephen L. Millich, Simi Valley assistant city attorney.

Osborne also ruled that city officials did not abuse their discretion in firing Medley, Millich said. The attorney added, “I think the judge was correct.”

About five years before Medley’s firing, the department disciplined four officers--some of them married--for being involved with another Explorer Scout, court records show. Two were fired for having sex with the girl, the other two for kissing her and fondling her breast, the records said.

Those incidents drove department officials to pass a policy forbidding Simi Valley officers from socializing with Explorer Scouts.