Officers’ Rights Were Violated, Judge Rules
A U.S. district judge ruled Tuesday that that an Ontario police detective violated a group of officers’ federal and state rights when he secretly videotaped them undressing in a police station locker room.
But former Det. Brad Schneider and the city of Ontario are not criminally liable because state law provides them immunity, Judge Virginia A. Phillips said in her ruling.
Nearly 125 officers filed a class-action suit in 2004, a year after they discovered that the detective had installed a video camera during a 1996 investigation of the theft of a flashlight.
If Schneider and the city do not successfully appeal the ruling, the officers can seek damages in civil court.
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