6 Police Employees Sue Laguna Beach Over Taped Calls

Six Laguna Beach Police Department employees filed suit Monday against the city of Laguna Beach, contending that Police Department supervisors tape-recorded their personal conversations at work and disciplined them for what they said.

The employees, including police officers, dispatchers and records clerks, are seeking damages for what they allege was violation of their privacy rights under state law.

The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court and claims that throughout 1993, police officials taped and reviewed the employees’ private conversations.

The taping issue first surfaced in January of this year, when workers learned that their idle conversations, including comments about their superiors, had been recorded.

Police officials blamed the tapings on faulty telephone equipment, which has since been replaced. They also denied disciplining any employee because of conversations that were taped.

The officials said the faulty equipment was in place for about seven months before being discovered. Calls to the Police Department are routinely recorded to ensure that employees respond appropriately to the public, and to document conversations that could be used in court.

But because of a glitch in the system, the faulty telephone equipment continued to record the conversations of the employees after the calls from outside the department had ended, officials said.

The employees who filed suit are Richard Seapin, Richard Jeffries, Debbie Kelso, Hilda Madrid, Mary Jones and George Ramos.