Ex-Employee Sues Anaheim Over Speech

A former Anaheim utility department manager who resigned last year amid allegations that he made a sexually explicit speech during a bachelor roast on city property has accused municipal officials of encouraging the speech and then forcing him to quit.

Henry Pepper filed a lawsuit Friday in Orange County Superior Court alleging that his speech had been approved before the roast by the utilities director, who organized the event. Pepper also alleges in the lawsuit that other city employees at the party made equally explicit speeches but that only he was punished.

According to the lawsuit, Ed Aghjayan, general manager of the Public Utilities Department, planned the August 1996 noontime bachelor party and approved the substance of Pepper’s presentation before the luncheon.

The lawsuit alleges that Aghjayan, his assistant and other city employees performed skits at the party involving jokes about an illegitimate child, bisexualism, a homosexual lover and a transvestite. The bachelor roast was in honor of a utility department employee who no longer works for the city.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for defamation, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, conspiracy and negligence from the city. Also named in the lawsuit were Aghjayan, Michael Bell, the utility’s assistant general manager, and Bret Colson, the city’s public information officer. The lawsuit alleges that Colson spoke to the media about the controversy after promising Pepper he wouldn’t.

City officials said Tuesday that they had not been served with the lawsuit.

“We are not in a position to comment on it at this time, other than to say that Mr. Pepper made claims against the city a year ago and the city denied those claims, and we continue today to deny those claims,” said Cristina L. Talley, senior assistant city attorney.

The lawsuit alleges that a city employee videotaped the roast. Pepper’s attorney, Theresa M. Brehl, said she does not have the videotape but added: “We are extremely confident that we can prove everything that we have alleged.”

The speech by Pepper at the bachelor party came to light after someone who identified herself as a female employee wrote an anonymous letter to several city officials complaining about Pepper’s comments.

The letter’s author, who said she attended the gathering, wrote that Pepper displayed sadomasochistic devices, including a whip, a harness, chains and handcuffs, while giving suggestions about how married couples can maintain sexual interest in each other. Such conduct should not be tolerated by a city official, the writer said.

The letter prompted a city investigation, which has not been completed. Pepper resigned nine days after the city received the letter, having worked as the manager for Anaheim’s water utility for less than a year.