Woman Officer Fired Over Harassment

In what Los Angeles Police Department officials say was a highly unusual case--probably the first in the department’s history--a woman officer was fired this week on the grounds she sexually harassed a female colleague.

Michelle Myers, who has worked for the LAPD for nearly eight years, denied the allegations and charged that the department brass is using her as an example of a new get-tough policy on sexual harassment.

“I think they want the public to believe that they’re taking a strong stance . . . and I’m going to be the poster child for it,” said Myers, 34. “I think they’re saying to all the men out there that ‘We’re going to fire a white woman, so you better watch out.’ ”

Interim Police Chief Bayan Lewis, who made the decision to fire Myers after a panel of two captains and a civilian recommended termination, upheld the move, saying it was based purely on the facts of the case.

“I’m not setting an example here,” Lewis said in an interview. “I’m looking at this case and saying I can’t afford to ever have this happen again with this person.”

Further, Lewis said he examined the reports from the Board of Rights panel, which heard the case for six months, from a “gender-neutral position.”

“I didn’t look at it like it was woman to woman, man to man, woman to man or man to woman,” he said. “It was the nature of the allegations and they kept getting worse as time went by.”

On that point, both Lewis and Myers agree.

“Even the raunchiest and most vulgar person wouldn’t do this,” Myers said. “I didn’t. This is absolutely wrong.”

Myers, who said she probably will appeal Lewis’ decision in court, is accused of exposing her breasts and lifting her dress to expose herself to Officer Penny Beaman, and making suggestive and lewd comments to her and others. In all, the department found Myers guilty of 24 charges, mostly involving Beaman, who previously worked with Myers in the Van Nuys Division’s abused child unit.

Beaman, now a detective in the Wilshire Division, will not speak to reporters about the allegations of incidents she said occurred from July to November 1995, police said.

LAPD officials would not discuss the case in detail, citing the confidentiality of the disciplinary proceedings and the potential for litigation. But officials said that fellow officers testified that they were aware of Myers’ conduct.

Myers said she and Beaman were friends, shared lunch hours together and played racquetball occasionally. She said the department had no witnesses who heard the alleged remarks firsthand and that the department’s case was shoddy at best.

“They made out like nobody ever made any jokes, that everyone was so perfect and there I was running around like some Tasmanian devil,” Myers said. “Really, I’m the fall guy.”

The department has come under criticism recently for failing to aggressively punish officers charged with domestic violence and sexual harassment. Department officials have responded by reiterating a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment.

While department officials said they could not confirm whether Myers was the first woman fired for sexual harassment, they said it is likely hers is the first case of its kind. A hand tally of termination records could not be completed by Tuesday afternoon.

The firing does not need to be approved by the Police Commission.

Myers said she will probably ask the police union to represent her in court to seek back pay and reinstatement.

“I love being a cop,” she said. “I want to be vindicated, and I want to clear my name.”