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Shelton v. City of Manhattan Beach9/28/2004
ternal affairs investigation of plaintiff's allegations. The lieutenant was directed to report to Chief Klevesahl. According to the lieutenant, by the end of September, "I had given appropriate orders for the subjects of the investigation to cease their actions, and not to speak to anyone about the investigation until it was concluded." Officers Eccles and Sellan were notified they were the subjects of an internal affairs investigation on or about September 11 and 12, 2001, more than two weeks after plaintiff submitted his internal complaint. On October 24, 2001, the lieutenant had another pressing assignment. Therefore, the internal affairs investigation was transferred to another lieutenant. Chief Klevesahl's October 24, 2001, e-mail message to the lieutenant newly assigned to the internal affairs investigation stated in part: "Could you please finish this [internal affairs] investigation so we can move on. It has hung on much too long and I'm on notice with Sgt. Shelton already . . . ."
Upon receiving the assignment, the lieutenant declared, he conducted background investigation, developed questions of potential witnesses, and began identifying witnesses; by the time he had completed that process, it was mid-November. In late November, December 2001 and January 2002, the lieutenant interviewed 14 witnesses who potentially had evidence concerning plaintiff's claims. Interviews were conducted on November 27, 2001, November 28, 2001, December 1, 2001, December 13, 2001, December 20, 2001, December 27, 2001, January 28, 2002, February 21, 2002 (Officer Eccles), and March 7, 2002 (Officer Sellan). The lieutenant also planned in that time frame to interview plaintiff. However, as previously noted, plaintiff took medical leave on December 18, 2001.
The lieutenant interviewed an officer on December 13, 2001. The officer stated he had recently overheard people in the department say that plaintiff was gay. The comments were derogatory. The officer had heard Officer Sellan call plaintiff a faggot or a fag one or two times. The officer had not heard Officer Eccles make that or similar comments. The lieutenant also interviewed a sergeant on December 13, 2001. Officer Sellan had told the sergeant something like, "I've got this damn [internal affairs investigation] `cause [plaintiff] thinks I called him a fag." The sergeant stated Officers Sellan and Eccles had made it known that they really did not like plaintiff. The sergeant had overheard locker room talk to the effect that plaintiff was trying to bring in "his little butt boys" or "butt buddies." Officers Sellan and Eccles were talking to each other. They said something like, " e need to be [field training officers] `cause we need to clean up this mess because [plaintiff] is hiring his butt boys . . . ." There was talk of dumping the recruits out of the field training program or black balling them. Other people were present at the time. The sergeant told plaintiff what was b
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