Officer Collects $35,000 ACLU Settlement

A Newport Beach police officer has received a $35,000 settlement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which he accused of violating his civil liberties by branding him a police spy and ejecting him from a public meeting.

The case is the first time anyone has collected from the ACLU on a civil rights violation claim, national ACLU officials said.

Sgt. Richard T. Long won a $20,000 verdict against the ACLU in 1987 in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana after he filed suit, alleging that he was recognized at a 1980 ACLU public seminar on police spying, was unjustly labeled a police spy and thrown out.

The court later ordered the ACLU to pay Long another $72,000 for his legal expenses. The ACLU filed an appeal, saying the public’s right to “talk back” to the government was at issue. But the group decided earlier this year to settle the case and pay Long $35,000.

National ACLU spokeswoman Colleen O’Connor insisted that the settlement reflected a tactical decision to avoid a prolonged and costly court battle and not an admission of wrongdoing by the ACLU.

Co-Defendants complain

Nonetheless, the decision to resolve the case drew fire from two ACLU co-defendants in the suit, who refused to join in the settlement. Their appeals are still pending before the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

One of the the defendants, Linda Valentino, a former board member in the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, said the rights group should have stuck by its principles rather than yield to legal expediency.

Valentino was held liable for $4,100 for initially recognizing Long, who was in plainclothes, among the seminar audience and publicly identifying him as a police officer. Co-defendant Rees Lloyd allegedly told Long to leave the meeting.

“There’s an important First Amendment issue here about the right of citizens to question a police officer,” Valentino said. “Officer Long was not thrown out of the meeting; he was questioned about his conduct.”

Long said he is relieved that the ACLU has settled its part of the suit but added that “I wish that Lloyd and Valentino would have admitted their guilt.”

“This was a matter of honor, a matter of integrity,” Long said. “The bottom line is, I was accused of doing something I did not do--being a spy--and I was fed up with it. My reputation was maligned.”

Long, who worked as a police public affairs officer at the time, said he had gone to the meeting to discover what complaints people had about the Newport Beach Police Department in hope of improving community relations.