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Sgt. Corey Paulich filed the lawsuit on Monday in Lake County Superior Court, according to his attorney Christopher Miller of the firm Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller & Johnsen.
Paulich is alleging that his peace officer due process rights were violated repeatedly by Sheriff Francisco Rivero in the course of an internal investigation that took place in March, according to the suit.
He's seeking a civil penalty of $25,000 for each of the six alleged “malicious” violations of his rights, for a total of $150,000, along with attorney fees, costs of the suit and other damages, and a writ of mandate and peremptory writ setting aside the disciplinary investigation, documents show.
“Sheriff Rivero has shown a blatant disregard for the due process rights of his employees. He appears to be unwilling to follow the law, so this court action was necessary to protect and enforce Sgt. Paulich’s rights and indeed the rights of all of the county’s peace officers,” said Miller, who represents Paulich as general counsel for the Lake County Deputy Sheriff's Association.
The suit names both the county of Lake and the Lake County Sheriff's Office as respondents, along with 10 as-yet unidentified individuals.
Neither Rivero nor his department's public information officer, Capt. James Bauman, responded to Lake County News' request for comment on the lawsuit.
County Counsel Anita Grant said Monday afternoon that the lawsuit hadn't yet been served on the county, and she was not able to comment on it until she saw the document.
In his action, Paulich is asking the court to terminate the internal affairs investigation in which he was interrogated several times by Rivero, without representation, as is required under the Public Safety Officer Procedural Bill of Rights, also referred to as the Peace Officer Bill of Rights (POBR), which was enacted in January 1977 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
According to case documents, Paulich – who began as a Lake County Sheriff's deputy in 1995 – supervised the participation of two sheriff's deputies in a vehicle pursuit initiated by the Clearlake Police Department in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 13.
That incident involved a pursuit of Clearlake resident Matthew Bronsert, with the chase reportedly reaching more than 100 miles per hour, as Lake County News reported in March.
The pursuit, according to court documents, ended after one of the deputies rammed the suspect vehicle, although the original police report had indicated that Bronsert had rammed the deputy.
Later that same day, after Paulich had gone off duty, then-Sgt. Gary Basor – who has since left the agency for the Lakeport Police Department – directed Paulich to contact Rivero, from home, via telephone. Paulich's suit states that during his phone call with Rivero he was interrogated for 30 minutes regarding the pursuit, his actions and those of his deputies.
Rivero called Paulich again at about 6 p.m. March 13, from the agency's sergeant's office, where Basor was with him, according to court documents. Paulich alleged that during both calls Rivero repeatedly admonished him about the incident and questioned him about the deputies' actions as well as Paulich's understanding of departmental pursuit policy.
According to Paulich, Rivero told him he had failed to perform his duties.
At 8 p.m. March 13, Rivero sent Paulich an e-mail admonishing him about the pursuit and telling Paulich he would be “held accountable” for the deputies' actions, as well as once again questioning Paulich's understanding of the agency's pursuit policies and procedures, to which Paulich said he responded.
The following day at 6 a.m. Rivero sent Paulich another e-mail stating that Paulich had failed to handle the pursuit in a proper manner, court documents state. On or about March 14 Paulich was served with an internal affairs investigation alleging that he had violated department rules and regulations in relation to the pursuit.
Lt. Brian Martin interrogated Paulich about the incident on May 6 as part of an internal affairs investigation based on Rivero's complaint, the lawsuit explains.
By that point, Paulich already had filed a claim against the county over the alleged violations. A copy of the claim obtained by Lake County News showed it was filed on April 4.
Miller said the county did not respond to the claim – either to accept or deny it – during a 45-day time period laid out in state statute. That triggered the filing of the complaint on Monday, he said.
Grant said the claim was sent to George Hills Co., the county’s third-party administrator for tort liability claims. She said it's the company's responsibility to respond to the claim, and she didn't see a copy of a denial in the file. Grant added that her office was contacting the company to ascertain the status of the claim.
Suit alleges numerous POBR violations
Paulich's suit alleges that in the investigation regarding the vehicle pursuit Rivero repeatedly violated several basic rules that POBR requires be followed when a peace officer is questioned for alleged misconduct.
Each of the six violations Paulich is alleging has a maximum civil penalty of $25,000 under the POBR statute.
Among the alleged violations, the suit states that Paulich was interrogated outside of his normal duty hours and that Rivero did not compensate him – or offer to do so – for the off-duty time Paulich spent responding to the sheriff's interrogations.
POBR states that, “The interrogation shall be conducted at a reasonable hour, preferably at a time when the public safety officer is on duty, or during the normal waking hours for the public safety officer, unless the seriousness of the investigation requires otherwise. If the interrogation does occur during off-duty time of the public safety officer being interrogated, the public safety officer shall be compensated for any off-duty time in accordance with regular department procedures, and the public safety officer shall not be released from employment for any work missed.”
Paulich's suit also alleges that Rivero violated his rights, specifically relating to POBR's Government Code section 3303(b), which states: “The public safety officer under investigation shall be informed prior to the interrogation of the rank, name, and command of the officer in charge of the interrogation, the interrogating officers, and all other persons to be present during the interrogation. All questions directed to the public safety officer under interrogation shall be asked by and through no more than two interrogators at one time.”
In that instance, Paulich alleges that Rivero did not inform him that Basor would be present during the interview.
Another alleged POBR violation comes in relation to Government Code section 3303(c): “The public safety officer under investigation shall be informed of the nature of the investigation prior to any interrogation.” Paulich alleges Rivero and the county never gave him that information.
In the suit's fourth cause of action, it refers to the following section of POBR, Government Code section 3303(d): “The interrogating session shall be for a reasonable period taking into consideration gravity and complexity of the issue being investigated. The person under interrogation shall be allowed to attend to his or her own personal physical necessities.”
Referring to Rivero's repeated phone and e-mail contacts with Paulich, the document states, “The issue Rivero was investigation as neither 'grave' nor 'complex'; regardless, the time period over which Paulich was interrogated by Sheriff Rivero was not reasonable.”
Paulich alleges in the fifth cause of action that Rivero threatened him with punitive action, in violation of Government Code section 3303(e): “The public safety officer under interrogation shall not be subjected to offensive language or threatened with punitive action, except that an officer refusing to respond to questions or submit to interrogations shall be informed that failure to answer questions directly related to the investigation or interrogation may result in punitive action.”
The suit's sixth cause of action alleges that Paulich was never advised of his right to tape record the investigation, which violates POBR under Government Code section 3303(g): “The complete interrogation of a public safety officer may be recorded. If a tape recording is made of the interrogation, the public safety officer shall have access to the tape if any further proceedings are contemplated or prior to any further interrogation at a subsequent time. The public safety officer shall be entitled to a transcribed copy of any notes made by a stenographer or to any reports or complaints made by investigators or other persons, except those which are deemed by the investigating agency to be confidential. No notes or reports that are deemed to be confidential may be entered in the officer's personnel file. The public safety officer being interrogated shall have the right to bring his or her own recording device and record any and all aspects of the interrogation.”
The last alleged POBR violation alleges that at no time was Paulich advised of his right to representation during the interrogations, in violation of Government Code section 3303(i), which states: “Upon the filing of a formal written statement of charges, or whenever an interrogation focuses on matters that are likely to result in punitive action against any public safety officer, that officer, at his or her request, shall have the right to be represented by a representative of his or her choice who may be present at all times during the interrogation. The representative shall not be a person subject to the same investigation. The representative shall not be required to disclose, nor be subject to any punitive action for refusing to disclose, any information received from the officer under investigation for noncriminal matters.”
Miller said the case's first court date is 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 21.
He said such cases can take the form of a bench trial, although they are more frequently handled through depositions.
Miller said he is aware of at least one other similar case that is pending against the Lake County Sheriff's Office but which has not yet been filed either as a claim with the county or as a lawsuit.
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