City supports new police chief

After learning that Petaluma's newly selected police chief Patrick Williams was recently named in a $5 million, federal lawsuit, City Manager John Brown and some council members expressed a willingness to give the former Desert Hot Springs chief - widely praised for his ethics and courage - the benefit of the doubt until learning more about the lawsuit.

Brown first learned of the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Central District Court on June 28 by former Desert Hot Springs detective Andrea Heath, when an Argus-Courier reporter contacted him looking for comment. In the suit, Heath claims that Desert Hot Springs police officials harassed and threatened her in retaliation for going to the FBI to report alleged departmental abuses. Williams is one of many officials named in the suit.

Brown originally said he believed that the police chief search had yielded the best candidate for the job and that he felt confident any potential issues would be uncovered during the ongoing, three-week background check.

At Monday's City Council meeting, Brown voiced a similar sentiment, saying that he will move forward with the hire unless the background check and pending psychological evaluation results suggest otherwise. He said that the new allegations are inconsistent with other accounts of Williams' service record, which include glowing reviews from the city manager of Desert Hot Springs and awards that Williams has received for ethics.

"The chief has indicated to me that these allegations are entirely false," Brown said at Monday's City Council meeting. "I have no reason to believe at this time that he's not telling me the truth."

Brown added that he is doing an independent investigation of his own, which includes trying to contact the FBI.

At the meeting, some council members echoed Brown's sentiments and pointed out that being accused of a crime is not the same as being found guilty. Councilmember Mike Healy, a Petaluma general practice attorney, said at Monday's meeting that Williams inherited a department with a lot of problems when he took over at Desert Hot Springs and questioned the validity of the lawsuit.

"The complaint basically names the entire city management structure, which is what a plaintiff's lawyer does when trying to get at the big, deep pockets of the city," Healy said in a later interview. He added that the complaint had not been verified, meaning that Heath did not swear under the penalty of perjury that the allegations in the document were true.

Mayor David Glass criticized recent press coverage on the issue, saying that it seemed to presume Williams' guilt, and declined to comment further.

Williams also attended the meeting, saying he would bring the same honor and integrity to the job that he has in his former positions, but did not talk about the lawsuit. He told the Argus-Courier that Desert Hot Springs officials have told him not to comment.

In the lawsuit, which was sent to the Argus-Courier on July 12, Heath claims that fellow Desert Hot Springs officers subjected her to retaliation, humiliation, and eventual demotion and wrongful termination after she notified FBI investigators in 2007 about abuse of arrestees that she reportedly witnessed.

The 81-page document alleges, in detail, multiple instances of derogatory slurs, humiliating events, unanswered calls for backup that left her in danger, and verbal threats Heath says she endured after her whistle-blowing led to an FBI investigation against Sgt. Anthony Sclafani and Sgt. David Henderson.

In 2010, the FBI, after several years of investigation, formally indicted Sclafani on two charges of federal civil rights violations for using excessive force against two suspects in custody. Sclafani was found guilty on both counts in February and is currently awaiting sentencing. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Henderson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights count and was sentenced last year to a year's probation.

The suit also alleges that Williams allowed this retaliation and harassment to occur, and ordered Heath not to speak with FBI agents twice regarding the Sclafani investigation while she was on disability leave. It also claims that Williams ordered Heath to lie to FBI agents in order to avoid meeting with them. But Healy suggested that Williams' alleged order for Heath not to speak with the FBI could have been a result of city policy governing how employees behave when on disability leave.

Though Williams could not comment on the lawsuit specifically, he did say that when an employee is on disability leave based on a physician's recommendation, the department honors that diagnosis and does not let that employee participate in work-related activities.

According to newspaper accounts, this is not the first time Williams has been named in a lawsuit for wrongful termination and harassment. A 2007 Lompoc Record article reported that shortly after Williams became police chief of Desert Hot Springs, he was named in a lawsuit filed against the City of Lompoc, where he had been a police captain.

The $50,000 lawsuit, filed by former Lompoc police officer Travis Henry in the Santa Barbara Superior Court, claimed discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination based on a disability. The lawsuit alleged that Williams told Henry he would lose his job if he did not return to work within four months of a surgical procedure for a neck injury he sustained while working. According to the article, the suit also claims Williams left medical papers in Henry's personnel file, which is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit was settled out of court in 2009.

While neither party would discuss the suit or the settlement, Lompoc Police Department Sgt. Chuck Strange, who personally conducted the internal investigation into the Henry claim, concluded that Henry had been treated fairly by the department and Williams.

"Lawsuits are part of life in the world of law enforcement and a sad part of being in a leadership role," Strange added. "Unfortunately, when you hold people accountable for their actions, sometimes they don't like it and Pat (Williams) always held people accountable. He's a true mentor and you guys are lucky to have him."

While news of the lawsuits has raised questions in Petaluma, no one who knew Williams has denied his ability to reduce crime in a city. Russell Betts, a Desert Hot Springs city councilman, said in an email earlier this week that he couldn't overstate the turnaround in public safety that Williams had brought to his city.

Williams also received the 2011 California Police Officers Association Medal of Valor for Ethics award. Petaluma Lt. Dave Sears, who serves on the association board, said that only people who display great courage in ethical situations receive the award.

"Usually, when someone is nominated, their achievements have been documented publicly through statistics and their superiors," he said.

Williams is slated to begin work on Aug. 13 and be sworn in at the Aug. 27 City Council meeting.

(Contact Janelle Wetzstein at janelle.wetzstein@arguscourier.com.)

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