Ousted Officer Sues Simi Valley in U.S. Court : Personnel: Lt. Robert Klamser, 40, contends he was denied right to a hearing a year ago when he was ordered to take a medical retirement.

Forced into retirement a year ago, a Simi Valley police lieutenant sued city officials in federal court Monday, alleging that he was denied his right to a personnel hearing before he was ousted.

Lt. Robert Klamser, 40, has been on paid administrative leave since last November, when the city ordered the 19-year veteran to take a medical retirement for undisclosed reasons.

Klamser had sued the Police Department in Ventura County Superior Court last December, contending that the city and his superiors conspired to oust him. That suit was dismissed last summer.

So Klamser filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, demanding that the city grant him a full evidentiary hearing where he can challenge the department’s findings that he was mentally disabled.

The federal suit contends that the city, City Manager M. Lin Koester and Police Chief Willard Schlieter have denied Klamser’s constitutional right to due process.

In the suit, Klamser alleges that the city unlawfully took him off its payroll, and he demands more than $50,000 in damages.

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He also accuses the city of unlawfully demanding that Klamser pay the cost of an administrative law judge to determine whether he is mentally disabled.

Klamser went without pay for about six months after his forced Nov. 23 retirement, but the city reinstated his salary June 28, said his attorney, William Rehwald of Woodland Hills. Klamser earns about $66,000 a year.

“We have asked for a full evidentiary hearing, which the city is dragging their feet on,” Rehwald said. “Now they’re trying to remove him a second time. I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it without a full evidentiary hearing.”

City officials have repeatedly declined to comment on Klamser’s case, saying it is a confidential personnel matter.

“The city’s position is that I don’t have any comment,” City Atty. John Torrance said Monday. “We don’t litigate issues in the press.”

Meanwhile, Klamser is under “house arrest” while waiting for the case to be resolved, Rehwald said.

This means that the veteran lieutenant, who has served as an international consultant on hostage negotiations, is receiving full pay but must stay at home during the hours he ordinarily would work, Rehwald said.

Klamser could not be reached for comment.

Late last week, Klamser also filed a legal claim demanding that the city reimburse him for $25,000 he says he spent defending himself in a lawsuit that another officer filed against him.

Officer Paul Nolan sued Klamser, alleging that the lieutenant mishandled the department’s inquiry into a citizen’s 1989 allegation that Nolan had raped her. A Municipal Court judge dismissed the case after it was revealed that the woman had had a sexual relationship with the officer, and that they had exchanged gifts and Christmas cards after the alleged rape.

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City Atty. Torrance said that he is weighing the claim.

“I asked him to send us a specific breakdown,” Torrance said. “Typically, when you’re looking at legal fees you get an itemization of how much time is used doing this and that--telephone bills, Xeroxing, filing fees. . . . We’re looking into it.”