Police Panel Head Urges Chief to Release Files; He Declines

Moving to keep the pressure on Police Chief Willie L. Williams, the president of the Police Commission on Thursday suggested that Williams resolve questions about his truthfulness by authorizing the public release of his personnel files. Williams, through his lawyer, declined.

“Chief Williams has proclaimed his innocence and at the same time has denied the public and even the City Council the right to know the facts,” said Enrique Hernandez Jr., president of the five-member commission.

“The only way the speculation can end is if the chief allows the facts to be known. Given the broad speculation and innuendo partially caused by the chief himself, perhaps his full release of the facts may be appropriate. Certainly that would demonstrate the confidence that he has claimed for his position.”

In a short speech Wednesday, Williams accused his opponents of engineering “one distorted leak after another” and said he was considering legal action to punish the person or people responsible. Williams concluded his remarks by insisting that “as chief of police, I will not allow my integrity to be smeared.”

Williams also downplayed the seriousness of his dispute with the commission, calling it “noting more than misunderstanding and miscommunication, or a difference about semantics.”

Although they declined to comment specifically, commissioners disputed that characterization. Commissioner Gary Greenebaum stressed the commission’s diversity and said that all five board members had reached the same conclusions about the chief.

On Thursday, Williams declined to respond to the latest move in his dispute with his civilian bosses, but the chief’s lawyer said he would not agree to Hernandez’s suggestion.

“The problem,” said attorney Melanie Lomax, “is that if he released his files it would set a dangerous precedent.”

In addition, she said, “there would be an endless dialogue about the nooks and crannies of the subjective judgments of the Police Commission. There would be no end to it.”

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Tim McBride, an LAPD spokesman, echoed those comments, saying that Williams had told him that he did not want to continue stoking controversy about the allegations and disclosures of recent days--including the Police Commission’s reprimand of the chief for allegedly lying to the board and revelations that the commission had told Williams of its serious concerns about his leadership of the LAPD.

Attempting to quell the controversy, Williams spoke to the city Wednesday, defending his integrity and attributing the dispute with the Police Commission largely to a misunderstanding.

“He doesn’t want to continue the controversy on this issue through the media,” McBride said. “He made a statement yesterday, and he’ll stand by that statement.”

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Williams’ decision not to release the files disappointed some supporters of the chief, who hoped that a full airing of the dispute would settle it without further damage to the chief’s professional standing.

Lomax said Williams could not agree to such a fundamental breach in his right to the privacy of his own employment records.

“The chief strongly believes it is not in the public interest to have the specifics of an employer-employee relationship aired in public,” she said. “I think that’s right.”