Pasadena Police Officer Fired Over Book

Pasadena police Monday fired a controversial veteran officer because he wrote a thinly veiled tell-all book about the suburban department that included tales of sexual improprieties, theft and spousal abuse.

Earlier this year, Officer Naum L. Ware, 41, published “The Rose Garden,” a 173-page vanity press book that uses fictional names for his real-life colleagues.

Ware was suspended Feb. 22 by Police Chief Bernard Melekian, who cited hateful remarks about gays and women in the book as justification. That suspension drew the ire of 1st Amendment advocates and police union officials, who argued that it raised serious issues of freedom of speech.

Nonetheless, Ware--who won the department’s silver award of merit in 1987 for his work as a narcotics officer--was ordered to appear at police headquarters. He was then handed a letter informing him that, after 23 years on the force, he should clean out his locker and turn in his uniform for the “writing and publication of a book. . . .”

Ware, a patrolman, said he is being punished for exercising his right to free speech. He said it leaves him no choice but to sue.

“They want to send a message, ‘Keep your mouth shut. Don’t write any books,’ ” Ware, a lay Baptist minister, said about his firing. “Whatever happened to the 1st Amendment?”

The success of such a lawsuit will depend on whether the book raises issues of public concern, such as malfeasance, said Peter Eliasberg, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

In a written “notice of discharge,” Melekian said he had concluded that the book didn’t contain matters of public concern because Ware’s research was reckless and some of his pronouncements reflected bias against groups based on gender, race or sexual orientation.

“On balance the negative impact upon the department justifies this disciplinary action,” Melekian wrote.

In a separate statement Monday, the Police Department said the firing followed an extensive internal affairs probe, a hearing and several “thoughtful weeks of deliberations” by Melekian.

Ware’s book describes a testosterone-driven force, where one officer is caught soliciting Hollywood hookers; another officer, called “the vile one,” tears up a traffic citation in exchange for sexual favors; and a sergeant repeatedly rapes a cadet in a station.

Many of the incidents in the book are derived from events in documented court cases, police reports and newspaper stories over the last decade. But Ware builds on those accounts and weaves in other, uncorroborated tales.

Ware said he wrote the book to highlight unethical behavior and cronyism in the 232-officer department.

“The department isn’t defamed by the book. The people in the book defamed the department,” he said. “I never sexually harassed anyone or misappropriated anything or planted drugs on someone.”

However, in the notice of discharge, Melekian labels the book “factually inaccurate.” The police chief cites numerous examples, including a claim in Ware’s dedication for the book that the department had done nothing to help an officer who committed suicide. In fact, Melekian wrote, the department tried to help by having him hospitalized.

The discharge also lists 12 slurs in the book against gays, women and minorities, including references to some female officers as “little tramps” and gays as “abnormal.” One of the book’s chapters is titled “Gays of Our Lives.”

The discharge also reveals the identities of officers given pseudonyms in Ware’s book.

Ware said Monday that Melekian has taken portions of the book out of context and that he is not anti-gay or anti-woman.

The book is Ware’s second. “Roses Have Thorns,” a tale about discrimination within the department, appeared in 1994 and caused some controversy, but nothing compared with that caused by the latest work.

Ware’s Pasadena Police Assn. attorney, Richard Shinee, said Monday’s firing is the first he’s heard of a veteran officer’s being fired for expressing serious concerns in a book.

Shinee said the discharge will be appealed to a city arbitrator and, if that fails, a civil rights lawsuit will be filed claiming violation of Ware’s 1st Amendment rights.

“It is Big Brother. It is the thought police. It’s a dangerous precedent,” Shinee said. “Who is going to decide which views officers can embrace off-duty? This case is about more than one officer.”