CITY
OF MANHATTAN BEACH STIPULATES TO PERMANENT INJUNCTION BARRING
DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST OFFICER
In
May’s PORAC News, LDF Panel Attorney Corey Glave, of
Goldwasser & Glave, reported the case of Robert Richmond vs.
City of Manhattan Beach where, at the time, the Los Angeles
Superior Court had issued a temporary restraining order and granted a
preliminary injunction against the city of Manhattan Beach chief of
police Klevesahl, temporarily barring any disciplinary action against
Manhattan Beach Police Officer Robert Richmond.
According to court documents, the city has now stipulated to
the granting of permanent injunction.
As
you may recall, Richmond, amidst an environment of questionable
practices by the administration of his department, including “gag
orders” and the attempts to intimidate other witness officers, took
a stand for truth and
justice. As a result, Richmond had his own rights trampled and was
facing discipline for not keeping his mouth shut about evidence that
may have helped keep an innocent police officer from going to jail.
During
the prosecution of a fellow officer, Richmond discussed his personal
belief that one of the complainants and/or chief witnesses for the
prosecution had been caught lying in the past. The accused officer’s defense attorney purportedly
used the information obtained from Richmond and other officers to
support the filing of a “Pitchess Motion” seeking to review the
sergeant’s personnel file for impeachment evidence.
When a local newspaper ran an article with information believed
to have been obtained from a review of the Pitchess Motion, the
sergeant and members of the management staff filed a personnel
complaint against Richmond.
The
department, however, did not complete its internal investigation of
Richmond until November 2002 and did not serve Richmond with any
proposed discipline until January 2, 2004, over six months after his
interrogation and nearly 15 months after the initial complaint was
filed.
Glave
tried to persuade Kelevesahl to put aside the disciplinary action, but
the chief summarily rejected his efforts. Legal Defense Fund authorized Glave to seek immediate
judicial intervention to enforce Richmond’s rights under AB301.
On February 4, 2004, Judge Hight of the Los Angeles County
Superior Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting the city
of Manhattan Beach, the Manhattan Beach Police Department and the chief
of police from moving forward with the proposed disciplinary action and
ordered the city to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not
be granted.
Then,
with discovery motions and requests for sanctions pending against the
defendants, the city stipulated to the court’s granting of a permanent
injunction enjoining the defendants from taking any punitive action
against Richmond based on the allegations, investigation and interview
of Richmond related to the disclosure of information to the private
investigator. The
defendants are further enjoined from making any reference to any action
against Richmond in his personnel file or files used for personnel
purposes, or in any other written record of his performance.
All other terms and conditions were made part of a confidential
settlement agreement.
Richmond
would like to express his great appreciation to Corey Glave for his
aggressive and unrelenting representation and to the PORAC Legal Defense
Fund for its support.
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