Irvine Settles Last of Sex Harassment Suits : Law: Police chief says department is ‘totally vindicated’ as 3 of 4 claims filed by ex-employees are dropped or dismissed.

The city has settled the last of four sexual harassment suits filed by former Police Department employees who said they endured lewd comments, unwanted sexual advances and threats from colleagues.

City officials said Tuesday that lawsuits by three of the four women were dismissed or dropped, and that the city agreed to pay the fourth woman about $130,000 simply to end the costly litigation.

“We came out of this totally vindicated,” said Irvine Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck.

The attorney representing the women could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

The women--former officers Abbe Taylor, Shari Lohman and Pam Fuhrer and former dispatcher Elaine Jones--sued the city and three Police Department supervisors in February, 1993.

They alleged that male department employees taunted them with sexual remarks, touched them and threatened them with retaliation after they filed complaints. In court papers, the women said male officers referred to them as “the broad squad” and made fun of female police officers when they were pregnant.

City officials said the suits were dismissed or dropped over several months last fall. In October, the City Council agreed to settle Taylor’s lawsuit.

The issue was brought up at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting by Irvine resident Earl Richmond, who said the $130,000 payment to Taylor was “hush money” and demanded to know why the city settled the case.

City Atty. Joel D. Kuperberg said that “it was not cost-effective to take the case to court. . . . This is certainly not hush money.”

The settlement cost the city “substantially less” than taking the case to trial, according to a city statement released Tuesday.

The statement also stressed that Irvine “does not take any responsibility or blame, and there is no admission of any wrongdoing by the city.”

Brobeck added that no police employees were disciplined as a result of the women’s allegations.