Police Chief Cleared of Harassment : Trial: But the city must pay $56,835 to the Police Department’s former spokeswoman, who filed the suit against her boss.

San Francisco Police Chief Anthony Ribera was cleared Wednesday of federal charges that he sexually harassed a former policewoman who was once his friend and chief spokeswoman.

But the city of San Francisco was found to have discriminated against Joanne Welsh by informally replacing her as department spokeswoman and failing to pay her for two weeks of work.

The jury awarded Welsh $56,835.

Outside court, Ribera thanked the jury and said he wanted to “wish them the best for the new year.”

“I can start planning my retirement with a sense of relief that this is behind me,” he told reporters.

Appearing pale but composed, Welsh said she was disappointed but added that cases such as hers are hard to win.

She said she plans to appeal.

“I don’t think that this is a new situation,” she said. “I think that women can pretty much empathize with me on how difficult it is to prove to someone what happens behind closed doors.”

The five-man, five-woman federal civil jury deliberated for about 31 hours over six days before delivering the verdict.

During 12 days of testimony, jurors had been served a potent brew of politics, power and sex.

Welsh alleged that she was harassed by Ribera in 1989-90 when he was a lieutenant and her supervisor. She claimed that the harassment resumed in 1992-93 when he was chief and she his appointed spokeswoman.

During the trial, which involved more than 50 witnesses, Welsh testified that during 1989-90, Ribera forced kisses on her, made suggestive remarks and gave her a pair of unwanted expensive gold earrings that he wouldn’t take back.

She said that in 1992-93 Ribera made sexual remarks to her, told her that she owed him a kiss for saving the jobs of some female recruits and that another officer had had oral sex in Ribera’s car and that he as chief “should be getting some.”

Although she remained composed for most of the testimony, Welsh wept as she talked about how she had to take a stress leave after going public with her charges.

Ribera also took the stand, bluntly denying that he engaged in any harassment.

Ribera’s attorneys said the suit was an attempt at political revenge cooked up by Welsh and her fiance, former city Supervisor Bill Maher. The day before Welsh went public through a newspaper interview with the San Francisco Examiner in February 1993, Maher had an office blowup with Ribera.

Maher denied instigating the charges.

Welsh’s suit was filed too late to seek damages for the earlier charges, but she was allowed to talk about them in court to bolster her claims.

Welsh was transferred out of public affairs about two weeks after going public with her allegations. She quit the department this year. Her suit contended that working conditions became intolerable.

Welsh’s suit was for unspecified damages, but in closing arguments, her attorney had suggested between $1.3 million and $1.8 million.

Regardless of the verdict, Ribera was out of a job.

The man who appointed him, Mayor Frank Jordan, was supplanted on Dec. 12 by Mayor-elect Willie Brown, who made it clear that appointing a new chief was high on his agenda. Ribera subsequently announced that he would resign next month.