Carlsbad police embroiled in lawsuits

When Carlsbad police Chief Gary Morrison retired this month after five years as this placid coastal city’s top cop, he left behind a declining crime rate and words of praise from city officials.

He also left behind a small cluster of lawsuits filed within the past 18 months by current and former cops, alleging they were discriminated against, sexually harassed and wrongly fired.

More suits will likely be on the way. One officer, Steve Seapker, who was fired in January 2014 for allegedly calling two sergeants “clowns” in a closed-door meeting, is currently in a contentious arbitration over his firing.

His lawyer Michael Williamson, a former Los Angeles police officer, said he expects to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks.

In June, former Detective Patrick Preston — the department’s Officer of the Year in 2009 — filed a lawsuit alleging that after he left the department in 2013 in a messy dispute over his retirement to take a job with the county sheriff, department officials made a false report of misconduct to his new employers.

The accusations, which are not detailed in the suit, triggered an Internal Affairs investigation by the sheriff’s department, which “completely exonerated” Preston earlier this year, his suit says.

Another suit filed in 2014 by fired Officer Taryn Sisco alleges she was sexually harassed by a lieutenant, subjected to disparaging remarks from other officers, and was fired after she complained about it.

Another suit filed that year by Detective Jesse Flores says he was the target of harassment and discrimination by other officers because of his race. When he complained to superiors, nothing was done, the suit says, and in 2012 he filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint with the city.

Flores’s suit says the complaint triggered counter-accusations against him from a sergeant that Flores had accused of harassing him. According to the counter-accusations, Flores lied about the statements of a confidential informant in a murder investigation. That led to an internal affairs investigation which resulted in Flores being fired in early 2013.

Flores appealed, and a hearing officer in 2014 overturned the firing and ordered the department to reinstate Flores with back pay and benefits.

While Flores is back at the department, his lawsuit says that he wasn’t reinstated to his position as a detective on the North County Regional Gang Task Force and is in a lesser position.

In court papers in the Flores and Sisco cases the city has rejected the allegations. It hasn’t yet responded to the Preston lawsuit. Contacted this week, a Carlsbad spokeswoman said city policy is not to comment on ongoing lawsuits. A message for the city attorney wasn’t returned.

James Mitchell, a lawyer who represents all three officers, said the department appears riven with feuds and personality conflicts that don’t get resolved.

“I think the whole department seems to be at a point where there’s just a lot of backbiting,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t get along with someone, you just accuse them of doing something wrong.”

Sisco’s lawsuit said a now-retired lieutenant contacted her while she was working in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 5, 2012, and told her he was lying in bed, thinking of her. After that, she said, other officers reported that he followed her around the city as she worked.

She complained but nothing was done, her lawsuit says. Instead she was investigated for misconduct (the accusations aren’t described in the suit) and fired.

Despite the turmoil, Mayor Matt Hall said he was confident in the department.

“I have tremendous faith in the law enforcement community,” he said Friday. He lauded Morrison’s tenure too, saying the former Long Beach Police Department commander “did an unbelievable job when he was here.”

Morrison took over the department after an earlier period of controversy dealing with ex-Chief Tom Zoll — one that Preston, ironically, played a role in.

In 2009 Zoll was abruptly placed on a two-week leave by city officials, who later revealed he had made a “threat in anger” after a meeting with Preston. He was reinstated, but retired shortly after.

Around the same time the city commissioned a study of the department that included an employee survey showing more than half of the employees didn’t think the department under Zoll was well managed.