4 Employees Agree to Join Newport Suit : Police: Five other women have already alleged they were sexually harassed by a captain, and that the chief knew of the abuse but did nothing to stop it.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Four more women agreed on Tuesday to join the lawsuit that has rocked the Newport Beach Police Department, bringing to nine the number of current and former police employees alleging they were sexually harassed and discriminated against.

According to the lawsuit, two of the new plaintiffs will corroborate to some extent the story of dispatcher Peri Ropke, who accused Police Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Anthony J. Villa Jr. of raping her at a drunken department party in 1981. Both say that Ropke, an acquaintance of theirs, told them about the alleged incident years before her accusation became public.

“I believe that by my actions in joining the lawsuit, other employees will not have to endure the wrong that made me a victim,” said Officer Shontel Sherwood, 29, who was honored by the department in 1991 for heroism. “I have no doubt in my mind that I was ridiculed and accused of ill-conceived acts by refusing to allow sexual harassment and a hostile work environment to exist.”

Sherwood and the other women will be added to the civil suit today, when a revised complaint is filed in Orange County Superior Court, said Steven R. Pingel, their attorney. The four new plaintiffs will join five others who have already alleged they were sexually harassed by Villa, and that Campbell did nothing to stop the abuse although he knew about it.

Campbell and Villa have denied the allegations, arguing in court papers that they are the victims of spurious charges from disgruntled employees who either have psychological problems or want to cover up their own misconduct on the job.

They specifically contend that Ropke has confused the Newport Beach party at which she says she was raped with another sexual encounter involving two different men while she was employed by another police department.

“The women’s lawsuit has no merit,” said Bruce Praet, the attorney for Campbell and Villa. “The more people who jump on the bandwagon, the less credibility it gives the original plaintiffs, if there was any credibility in the first place. This campaigning at police departments is a disservice to female employees with legitimate cases. You can cry wolf too many times.”

Those scheduled to join the case are dispatcher Molly Thomson, animal control officer Michelle LeFay and Officers Sherwood and Katherine Heinzel. Thomson and LeFay have taken medical leaves from the department. Sherwood was awarded the department’s Merit Award for rescuing five people from a burning building.

According to the revised lawsuit, Thomson, Heinzel, LeFay and Sherwood also have filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigates allegations of on-the-job discrimination.

“It is interesting that Praet is using the word wolf in this case,” Pingel said. “There is no bandwagon happening. If there were, it would have many more women riding in it than just my nine clients.”

In general, the women allege that they were touched against their wishes by Villa, denied promotions because they were female, told to socialize off-duty with male officers and “blacklisted” because of their associations with certain people on the department.

The women contend in the lawsuit that they were repeatedly subject to lewd and suggestive remarks by Villa, or were forced to watch their female co-workers being “manhandled” by him. The situation was so bad, LeFay and Heinzel say, they often avoided Villa by taking alternative routes through the police station or calling in sick.

When Villa’s sexual advances were spurned, Sherwood alleges that she was labeled “gay” by male officers, while the other women said their careers were threatened or they were denied opportunities.

Heinzel “was told by one superior officer that her career was over because she was associating with the wrong female employees and was not going along with the program of department command,” the lawsuit states.

Both LeFay, an animal control officer since 1990, and Thomson, who has been a dispatcher for almost 10 years, say in the lawsuit that Ropke over the years has told them that she was raped by Villa and Campbell in 1981 during a party at a landfill near the police station.

Ropke went public with the rape charge at a news conference on Oct. 15, when she announced that she was joining the lawsuit. Hours later, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy put Campbell and Villa on paid administrative leave because of the seriousness of the allegations.

LeFay, who has been Ropke’s roommate, claims that she became so afraid of Villa because of the alleged rape and ongoing sexual harassment that it began affecting her ability to do her job. Similarly, Thomson says that since she was told about the alleged rape in 1986, she kept quiet about it because she feared losing her job if she reported Ropke’s story to her superiors.

Thomson also alleges that Villa told her that her relationship with a Newport Beach police officer was not healthy and that Campbell’s wife, Lavonne, who is an officer, had threatened her career and that of another officer.

Praet, who has not yet seen the charges in the revised lawsuit, denied the rape allegation, reiterating his position that Ropke has spread “this fantasy” about a rape throughout the department’s lower ranks for the last 10 years.

“She has told this story before with two other players--not Arb Campbell or Tony Villa,” Praet said. “The players keep changing to serve her purposes, and Arb and Tony are prime targets right now.”

Pingel dismissed Praet’s accusation that Ropke was making up the entire event. With a good record at the department, she has nothing to gain from the allegations, he said, and risks months, if not years, of public exposure.

Pingel filed the original lawsuit on Sept. 24 on behalf of communications supervisor Mary Jane Ruetz, records supervisor Margaret McInnis, Officer Cheryl Vlacilek, and fired Officer Rochell Maier, who has appealed her termination to the city’s civil service board.

The suit contends that the department’s top level of command is “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct” in which female employees are treated differently than male employees and forced “to go along to get along” or risk their law enforcement careers.