Ex-Cop Alleges Abuse by O.C. Police Agencies

A retired Huntington Park police officer filed a federal civil rights lawsuit this week against his former department and two Orange County law-enforcement agencies, accusing them of brutality and other misconduct when they raided his Fountain Valley home in 1998.

John Maley’s attorney also contends that local police framed his client for weapons violations and other charges because they feared he would expose alleged wrongdoing. Maley has said his evidence included a photograph of an on-duty Huntington Park officer having sex with a prostitute. The lawsuit accuses officers from the Huntington Park police, Fountain Valley police and Orange County sheriff’s departments of having used excessive force, mistreating his children and conducting an illegal search of his home. Maley has accused Huntington Park police of destroying the incriminating photographs.

Maley’s attorney, Joseph H. Low, said the case was a troubling illustration of what police will do to protect their power and hide possible corruption.

“When they found out this evidence existed, they went in and seized it, and then destroyed it,” Low said. “And in the meantime ... they destroyed his credibility.”

Police officials in Fountain Valley and Huntington Park could not be reached for comment Friday. A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department did not comment about the litigation. Maley, 46, was retired for six years when his Fountain Valley home was raided in April 1998 after a group of teenagers reported that he had flashed his badge and a gun at them during a confrontation in his neighborhood.

Fountain Valley officers were joined in their search by sheriff’s deputies and Huntington Park officers, according to the lawsuit. Officers confiscated two shotguns, 11 rifles and 11 handguns, as well as alleged “destructive ingredients” and espionage literature. Maley has also accused them of seizing four albums of photographs, some allegedly showing an officer having sex with a woman near a police car and officers cavorting with scantily clad women.

Maley was charged with 10 felony and misdemeanor counts of impersonating a police officer, brandishing a gun and preparing to make a bomb. Nine of the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

After reviewing evidence presented during the criminal case against Maley, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Borris described the Huntington Park officers involved in the case as a “liars club.”

The judge also agreed that Fountain Valley police improperly handed over Maley’s photographs to Huntington Park police officials, and that some of the photos were then probably destroyed.

Maley pleaded guilty last year to one felony count of having tracer ammunition, according to his attorney, and did not have to serve time or pay any fines. Maley, a former Royal British Marine, alleges in his lawsuit that when police stormed his home, they kept their guns pointed at his 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, even after he asked them not to.

He also alleges that he had agreed to cooperate but was instead pushed to the ground, where he was beaten, kicked and struck on the back of the head. Maley further contends he was left with internal bleeding, double vision, cuts and bruises.

“Officers then submitted false police reports so that John Maley would be charged criminally,” leading him to be maliciously prosecuted in violation of his constitutional rights, the lawsuit states.