More than a dozen officers filed a $20 million dollar federal lawsuit against the city and the police chief because they were suspended for appearing in a video for a retiring captain. However, this was not a good day for their case.
The officers say a news conference from December of 2005 should never have taken place. The police chief and the mayor played clips from a video for a retiring captain and announced all the officers on it were being suspended.
"It is shameful, it is offensive, it is sexist, it is homophobic and it is racist, and we're going to make sure that it ends and it ends immediately," said Mayor Gavin Newsom on December 7, 2005.
The officers filed a $20 million dollar lawsuit alleging racial discrimination, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Their attorneys wanted to question Mayor Newsom under oath, but today Judge Susan Illston refused to allow it.
Larry Hecimovich is the deputy city attorney handling the case.
"Mayor Newsom clearly should not be deposed in the case. There's no legitimate basis for the discovery. We've provided the discovery in written form and we regard the attempt to take his deposition as just pure harassment," says Hecimovich.
The judge also ruled that the video's producer, Officer Andrew Cohen, and his lawyer, Waukeen McVoy, violated a protective order by releasing Chief Heather Fong's deposition to the I-Team. She ruled them to be in civil contempt and ordered them to pay more than $24,000 dollars in expenses and attorneys' fees.
McCoy says he will appeal the ruling.
"The public has a right to know about what their government officials are doing behind closed doors, but the court ruled that we should try the case in her courtroom," says McCoy.
In her deposition, Chief Fong said the mayor's office was responsible for that news conference two years ago.
Chief Fong: "I did not want to go through a press conference."
Officers' lawyer: "Well, who actually compelled your attendance to the press conference?"
City Attorney: "Objection."
After the city attorney's objection, Chief Fong answered the question.
Chief Fong: "The mayor's office scheduled the press conference. As the chief, it was my responsibility to be there because it impacted the police department.... I normally would not hold a press conference to discuss a disciplinary matter."
Today, Judge Illston also appointed a special discovery master to attend all future depositions. This comes after an I-team blog called "Lawyers Gone Wild" which showed just how heated the sessions have become.
Hecimovich: "This is ridiculous, it's ridiculous. It's beyond the pale."
McCoy: "What are you taking about?"
Hecimovich: "You're not a stupid man, you know exactly what she's saying. If you want to mischaracterize her testimony back to her five, six, seven, eight times, we're going to take a break, and you can think about whether that's the way you want to spend your day."
The lawyers are having a hard time getting along and both sides will share the expense of having that special master attend all sessions.
I'm posting the judges ruling today on a new I-Team blog heree. Also, the captain for whom that tape was made is telling his side of the story. I'll have details of his declaration and what it may mean for this case.
BLOGS:
>> Judge Scolds "Cops Gone Wild" Cops
>> Lawyers Gone Wild.
I-Team Blog:
One of the more interesting facts we uncovered in the research for this investigation was how the controversy began. For more on that, read the I-Team blog here.
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