Costa Mesa to pay $200,000 to settle police officer’s lawsuit

The city of Costa Mesa has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit by one of its police officers alleging that he was unfairly passed over for a promotion and was otherwise mistreated because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder triggered when he rear-ended a vehicle with his police motorcycle.

Officer Jeffrey Horn and city officials signed the settlement agreement late last month, essentially ending his lawsuit that was filed in Orange County Superior Court in December 2014.

The city did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

City officials and Horn’s attorney did not respond to phone messages Thursday asking about the settlement.

In the lawsuit, Horn claimed that managers at the Costa Mesa Police Department began harassing him after he was diagnosed with PTSD in July 2010 in the wake of an on-duty motorcycle wreck in May that year.

According to court documents, Horn crashed into the back of a car while he was trying to pull it over during a traffic stop. The California Highway Patrol investigated the incident and decided Horn was at fault because he was riding too fast for the conditions, according to a police supervisor’s sworn statement filed by the city.

Horn spent about two weeks recovering from the wreck before returning to duty, according to his lawsuit.

Horn claimed that after the crash he started experiencing symptoms including anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares and difficulty concentrating. The lawsuit alleged those problems contributed to a bad performance review Horn received.

When Horn asked his supervising sergeant to reconsider the review because of his PTSD diagnosis, the sergeant berated him and refused, according to the lawsuit.

Horn claimed that when he complained about the supervisor’s behavior, he was passed over for a promotion and stripped of motorcycle duty.

In court documents, police officials claimed there were other reasons not to promote Horn, including that there were more-qualified applicants and that Horn had shown questionable judgment.

A retired police captain wrote that Horn had a tendency to unnecessarily escalate situations to the point that he would have to use force.

In one case, according to court documents, Horn pepper-sprayed a mother and a young child during a confrontation sparked when Horn had a car towed.

In another situation, Horn is alleged to have put a 75-year-old man in an arm bar, a type of martial arts hold, when the man refused to leave his vehicle during a traffic stop.

The police supervisors who described the incidents wrote that Horn could have avoided using force in those situations even though it was justified under department policy.

In another document, a supervisor wrote that he had to act as backup when Horn pulled over a member of a biker gang in front of 50 other gang members.

“I was surprised that an experienced officer would not recognize the risk to safety involved with this type of traffic stop,” Costa Mesa police Lt. Keith Davis wrote, noting that Horn easily could have been surrounded.

As part of the settlement, Horn was to apply for disability-related retirement from the Police Department based on a 2006 knee injury he suffered at work.

It’s not yet clear what benefits Horn would receive in retirement, but municipal employees who retire because of an on-the job injury typically receive monthly payments for the rest of their lives or until they recover, according to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which has final say over Horn’s application.

It’s unclear whether CalPERS has approved the application.

The settlement agreement required Horn to leave the Police Department no later than July 23, regardless of whether the application had been approved.

Horn had worked at the department since 1999, according to his lawsuit.