News Home Page

OCEANSIDE ---- No one in the city, it seems, can fathom how anyone could have leaked a controversial police report to the public.

The report, written by Los Angeles law firm of Epstein, Turner & Song, details alleged sexual harassment within the Oceanside Police Department three years ago and was the basis of a civil lawsuit that the city eventually settled for $650,000 with three female police officers.

Recently, Carlsbad consultant Jennifer Orrock threatened to hand out 50 copies of the report at an Oceanside City Council meeting.

The city countered by obtaining a temporary restraining order against Orrock, blocking her from quoting or distributing the report.

On Wednesday, the attorney for the Oceanside Police Officers Association filed a claim against the city ---- a necessary step before filing a suit ---- on behalf of six members of the Police Department, saying the city had failed to keep the document confidential.

On March 22, 2002, the North County Times published an article quoting from the report, which it had obtained from an undisclosed source.

The newspaper's editor, Kent Davy, declined Friday to disclose the identity of that source.

"I have no comment as to who the source of the document was in 2002," Davy said. "We don't talk about the identity of confidential sources."

Orrock has said that she got her copy of the report from an Oceanside City Council member in 2002, a statement that cannot be independently verified. However, all of the council members who served on the council at the time have emphatically denied leaking the document.

Former council member Carol McCauley, who now lives in Peyson, Ariz., said Friday she can't imagine how the document got out of City Hall.

"As far as I know, no one ever would have been able to make a copy of it," McCauley said.

She said that after the Epstein Turner & Song report was filed with the city, only one copy was kept by Duane Bennett, who was then the city attorney.

"We had to go in one by one if we wanted to look at it, but it was never allowed to leave Mr. Bennett's office," McCauley recalled.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez and former Councilwoman Betty Harding, who were serving on the council in 2002, recalled the same arrangement. They said the council decided in closed session to keep the document in the sole custody of the city attorney and to make no copies.

"We actually went into his office, read it, and gave it back to the senior attorney," Harding said. "None of us were able to take it back to our desks. As I recall, this was because, at the time, there had been some accusations of some leaks on some other things that were handled in closed session."

While Harding and McCauley said they went to Bennett's office to read the report, Sanchez, former Oceanside Mayor Terry Johnson and current council member Jack Feller said they never read the report, which had cost the city more than $100,000.

Bennett, who is now an attorney for the Port of San Diego, said Thursday that he does not recall making the report available to anyone, council member or otherwise.

"I can't tell you how the report got out," he said. "I was as surprised as anybody else."

Bennett added that he believes the city attorney's office was not in charge of providing the report for inspection. He said he believes the city's personnel director was responsible for providing the report to those who wanted to view it.

At the time, the city's personnel director was Bill McLeod. McLeod now works as personnel director for the city of Palmdale. McLeod did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

The city's current personnel director, Brian Kammerer, said Thursday that his department would definitely not have been in charge of showing the document to anyone.

"The only people in this department who would have seen it are the personnel director and the (equal employment officer)," Kammerer said.

City Manager Steve Jepsen said he has no leads as to who might have leaked the report.

"I have no way of knowing who has seen it and who hasn't seen it," Jepsen said.

Likewise, neither of the possible custodians of the document ---- the city attorney's office or the personnel office ---- keeps any kind of a log book listing who viewed which document and when.

Jepsen said the city is currently deciding how it will proceed in investigating the leak.

Meanwhile, Adam Smith of California, a San Diego-based conservative group, has filed a public records request with the city requesting a copy of the report and numerous other documents related to the city's investigation of sexual harassment in the police department.

Ken Moser, chairman of the group and an attorney who specializes in public records law, said Friday that he believes the records should be public.

"It's not a personnel record, it's a report," Moser said. "The public records law says the only time you can't release something like this is if it's actually in a person's personnel record."

This isn't the first time the Adam Smith organization has gotten involved in Oceanside politics. In 2000, the group made a $5,000 contribution to Republican Don McKinney and a $4,000 donation to McCauley. At the time, McKinney was running for mayor and McCauley was running for re-election on the council.

Moser said Friday that developer Doug Manchester, who was at loggerheads with the city over the development of a downtown beach resort next to the Oceanside Municipal Pier, was a member of Adam Smith five years ago when the donations were made but that he is not a member today.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.