4 back claims against NBPD

The Newport Beach Police Department continued to come under fire during a civil trial Wednesday, as more officers and employees told jurors of rampant homophobia that even led people to believe one sergeant had AIDS.

“I knew three or four gals who dated him but wouldn’t admit it because they were afraid other guys wouldn’t date them if they’d dated Neil Harvey,” testified Kendra Duerst, a video producer for 12 years with the department. “Because everyone thought he was gay, he may or may not have AIDS.”

Duerst was one of four department employees Wednesday who strengthened Harvey’s claim that false rumors of his sexuality were prevalent. Harvey, a sergeant for 18 years with the department, claims he has not been promoted to lieutenant because superiors undermine his authority with false rumors he’s gay.

“I heard it a lot,” testified officer Vlad Anderson, former president of the Police Employees Assn., which represents officers below the rank of sergeant and civil employees. He added that it undermined Harvey’s ability to lead.

“It was very disrespectful and paints an incorrect picture of Neil Harvey,” he said.

Harvey claims that colleagues have called him derogatory names against homosexuals to his face and that lieutenants have sought to undermine him to his subordinates.

Even living in Laguna Beach, with a large homosexual population, was held against him, Anderson told jurors.

Sgt. Mike James testified that Harvey has the qualities to become a lieutenant, a claim the defense denies. Defense attorneys for the city maintain, with several employee reviews, that Harvey lacked the respect of subordinates and the way he led alienated those around him.

In a tearful revelation, Duerst said her superiors have already retaliated for her getting involved in this trial.

She told jurors that weeks after giving a deposition for this lawsuit earlier this year, she was suddenly summoned for a performance review — her first in six years.

The review was dated from a retired sergeant and was apparently signed a year ago, Duerst said.

She refused to sign the review, saying, “This is wrong,” she testified.

Echoing Harvey’s claims, Duerst said the criticisms in her review were never translated to her in person; they were basically out of nowhere.

Former Officer Rachel Van Holt, then known as Rachel Hall, argued that Harvey has had a target on his back ever since he defended her. Harvey helped her file a complaint against the department a few years ago when she felt she was being discriminated against for being a woman. The lieutenant targeting her, Lt. Richard Long, she testified, soon turned his attention on Harvey.

Van Holt told jurors that she heard from other officers that Long had sought their help in taking Harvey down, asking officers out for coffee and instructing them to report any and all of Harvey’s mistakes and misconduct directly to him.

“Perception is everything,” she told jurors she remembered hearing. To her, that meant it’s what others think of you that counts, not your qualifications.

Defense attorneys remained focused on employee feedback during Harvey’s several attempts to promote.

Jim McDonald flashed negative peer reviews in front of Harvey. They said he was too slow at making decisions and was too nitpicky on the little things at the cost of the larger problem. One reviewer wrote Harvey was “hypercritical” about police reports and “demanded changes that suit his style.”

McDonald will look to continue to emphasize for jurors that even if a few people thought Harvey was gay, if officers reviewed him fairly and objectively for promotions and the chief chose who to promote the same way, Harvey is wrong.

A financial analyst in civil suits testified that if a jury deems Harvey should have been promoted as early as 2000, he would be owed $873,799 in lost wages. If he should have been promoted as recently as this last October, the city would owe him $611,855 through his lifetime.

Chief John Klein is expected to testify Friday.

Reporter JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.