Newport PD Called ‘Hostile’ Workplace

A special city attorney hired to investigate civil suit charges of sexual harassment at the Newport Beach Police Department concluded Monday that a judge indeed “might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred.”

Calling his investigation “substantially complete,” Los Angeles attorney Harold A. Bridges, who has spent two months questioning 169 members of the embattled Police Department, promised to soon provide a complete report to the City Council along with recommendations to improve the department’s working atmosphere.

“The interviews revealed information from which a trier of fact might find that conduct of a sexually harassing nature occurred,” Bridges announced Monday in his first public comments regarding the investigation since city officials asked him to step in.

Bridges was hired by the city after four current and former employees of the Police Department filed a suit Sept. 24 alleging that Capt. Anthony Villa sexually harassed them on and off the job and that his close friend and boss, Chief Arb Campbell, did nothing to prevent it. Since then, five more women have joined the suit, including a dispatcher who contends that she was raped by Campbell and Villa after a Police Department party in 1981.

Bridges also told the City Council on Monday that he also found that the women who filed the suit may have themselves “engaged in sexually harassing conduct.”

“Wholly apart from sex,” Bridges continued, “a substantial number of those interviewed believed there to be a hostile work environment. In many cases a generally hostile work environment is conducive to the creation of a sexually hostile work environment.”

Bruce Praet, the lawyer representing Campbell and Villa in the suit, said he was not surprised by Bridge’s findings of potential sexual harassment by the women.

“We know an awful lot about these complainants that the city has not chosen to either investigate or show any interest in,” he said. “A lot of what we have been able to discover indicates that not only are most of their allegations false, there is substantial evidence to say that they have engaged in conduct equal or worse than that which they are alleging.”

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy placed Villa and Campbell on paid administrative leave on Oct. 15. Two weeks later, the police employees’ association announced an overwhelming vote of no-confidence in the chief.

Neither Bridges nor Murphy would elaborate on what findings there were regarding the women’s behavior or whether any action might be taken against them.

The women who filed the suit could not be reached for comment.

The city attorney launched a separate personnel investigation Dec. 3 to determine “what, if any disciplinary action should be taken” in connection with the sexual harassment charges.

Representatives for both sides said they were neither surprised nor satisfied with the city’s preliminary report or with the investigation as a whole.

“It doesn’t seem as though they’ve come any further in concluding that my clients have done anything wrong,” Praet said. “I am assured by my clients that there is absolutely no merit to any of the allegations. This report does not seem to disclose any.

“To the extent that it doesn’t specifically exonerate my clients, I’m not satisfied with it,” Praet said. “The manner in which it was conducted, I don’t think it ever could have exonerated my clients.”

“This, from the beginning, has been an indictment rather than a fact-finding investigation,” Praet said of the city’s investigation. “It was from the outset intended toward indicting my clients rather than reaching a neutral conclusion.”

Beno Hernandez, a partner in Law Enforcement Representation & Associates, a firm that assisted in filing the lawsuit, was pleased with the city finding but said he expected much more evidence to come out of the investigation.

“The plaintiffs have voiced their opinions; it’s up to the city to do what is right,” Hernandez said. “They are obligated by law, obligated by morals and ethics, to do something. To right the wrong, they have to sever the cancer, cut the cancer out. The only way to do that is to start with the chief and the captain.”

Praet criticized the city’s investigation as biased and not thorough enough, while Hernandez blasted officials for moving too slowly.

“Truth will prevail,” Hernandez said. “The only problem is, the longer it takes, the more damage it does to the city of Newport Beach, to the Police Department, and especially to the victims.”

Bridges and his two partners have interviewed 169 people, costing the city more than $75,000 in fees so far. They have spoken with 63 of the 64 full-time female Police Department employees; 97 full-time male Police Department employees; and six part-time female employees.

Among those interviewed are eight of the nine complainants in the lawsuit, and all supervisory employees of the Police Department except Campbell.

Campbell canceled a scheduled interview Nov. 11 because he was sick.

Correspondent Mimi Ko contributed to this report.