The Year in Review: Revisiting the notable Valley events of 1994. : Judge Puts the Centerfold Back in the Fire Station : Publications: An Antelope Valley firefighter wins a ruling overturning a department ban on adult magazines.

For a while this past summer, one veteran Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighter stationed in the Antelope Valley was making more news for fighting for his right to read adult magazines than he was for fighting fires.

The episode began two years ago when the department issued a sexual harassment policy that banned sexually oriented publications from fire stations.

The policy meant that Capt. Steve Johnson of Fire Station 114 in Lake Los Angeles would have to discontinue one of his favorite pastimes: perusing the pages of Playboy magazine during the lulls between emergencies.

Johnson, a 27-year Fire Department veteran and 30-year Playboy reader, decided to take on his department for his First Amendment right to read the magazine, a crusade that generated national publicity.

Johnson, 50, argued that women firefighters would not be threatened by his choice of reading material. However, there were no women working at Station 114 to back up his claim.

Reading the magazine, he said, was a harmless way to pass the time, especially during one of the 10, 24-hour shifts per month that are required of firefighters.

Besides, Johnson added, his wife reads the magazine too.

Johnson was supported in his lawsuit against the county by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Fire Department, which employs only 11 women in its 2,400 force, was backed by the National Organization for Women, which in the Playboy case, commended the department’s sexual harassment policy.

At a one-day federal trial in June, two female firefighters came forward to say they didn’t mind their male colleagues reading Playboy at work. Two others said the presence of girlie magazines made them uncomfortable.

In the end, a federal judge struck down the department’s ban on Playboy and other magazines, finding that the ban had placed “severe limitations on Johnson’s First Amendment rights.”

A few days later, up at Station 114, the firefighters were nonplussed. Said Capt. Bob Hancock: “You know, we probably have more horse magazines around here than girlie mags.”