> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ex-SMPD officer sues city for racketeering - URL: https://www.smdp.com/ex-smpd-officer-sues-city-for-racketeering/ - Published: 2002-07-30T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:34:33.000Z - Author: Andrew Fixmer - Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Officer alleges gross abuses of SMPD power* A former Santa Monica police officer is suing the city and eight high-ranking officers — including the police chief — for conspiring to damage his career. The newly amended lawsuit alleges officer John Biel was terminated and later reinstated, only to be denied overtime pay and subjected to other “harassing activity,” which Biel alleges resulted in his developing a disabling case of high blood pressure and forced him to leave the department last year. Biel states in his lawsuit that police chief James T. Butts, Jr., along with some of the department’s senior officers, conspired to create a stressful working environment for him to allegedly make him more obedient in an internal affairs investigation looking into overtime practices. Biel’s original lawsuit, filed in Beverly Hills Superior Court on Jan. 9, 2001 by the police officers union, said the termination violated Biel’s First Amendment rights. However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole threw out the suit last month for having no legal basis. Judge Cole allowed Biel’s attorney, Tim Vrastil, to re-file the lawsuit with new claims that are better supported by Biel’s arguments. Vrastil now argues the alleged conspiring between Butts and his senior officers constitutes violations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statutes. The statutes are commonly used by federal prosecutors trying organized crime figures, and not municipal police officers. “We have alleged people have taken over a legitimate organization and turned it around into a corrupt institution,” Vrastil said. > “We have alleged people have taken over a legitimate organization and turned it around into a corrupt institution.” — See SUIT, page 5 — TIM VRASTIL Attorney Police department spokesman Lt. Frank Fabrega said as a matter of policy, he could not comment on Biel’s lawsuit. “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” he said. Deputy City Attorney Barbara Greenstein, who is handling the case, said she will file a response to the new claims within 30 days. “I have no comment on what they have filed,” she said. “I just got it today and I haven’t had time to study it yet.” > “I have no comment on what they have filed. I just got it today and I haven’t had time to study it yet.” — — BARBARA GREENSTEIN Deputy city attorney The 44-page complaint chronicles alleged abuses of power by the police department since 1991, when Butts was hired as the police chief. However, less than a third of the complaint deals with how Biel was personally wronged. Vrastil said that’s not because of any grudge Biel may have against the department, but rather because he must establish a pattern of racketeering activity. “It has to be pled this way,” he said. “Two-thirds of the brief is how you properly plead a RICO cause of action and those have to be pled with great specificity.” Biel said he was guaranteed overtime pay for attending an awards ceremony in 1997 when he received a pin marking five years of service with the department. At the time of the ceremony, Biel had worked for the department for more than 10 years, the lawsuit states. According to the complaint, when Biel tried to claim overtime pay, the request was denied. Along with another officer, Biel was told that “there is a significant problem with the overtime procedure and that so many officers are receiving unauthorized overtime that it has become a problem,” the complaint states. In April 1997 an internal affairs investigation was launched to determine why Biel asked for overtime at his own service celebration. Biel claims in his lawsuit that he told investigators he was informed by Capt. Mark E. Smiley he was eligible for overtime pay, and he presented investigators with a list of witnesses to verify his statements. However, investigators never spoke to any of Biel’s witnesses, the lawsuit alleges. Instead, Biel says Smiley was allowed to retaliate against him for being named in the investigation. Smiley removed Biel from his position as a “Field Training Officer,” a bonus given to longtime officers for training new cadets. The “demotion” cost Biel a 5 percent reduction in pay, the lawsuit states. Biel said the “demotion” was rescinded the following day when no wrongdoing could be cited. After the incident, the lawsuit states the police department changed the way long-time officers are chosen to participate in the field training officer program — which was to exclude officers who cooperated with Biel and rewarded those officers loyal to Smiley and Butts, Biel claims. The Police Officers Association, the union representing Santa Monica’s officers, requested to “meet and confer” about the new system, which was not resolved until Biel’s medical retirement in 2001\. After that, the original field training officer program was reinstated, according to the complaint. Based on the internal affairs investigation’s report, Butts attempted to discipline Biel for his overtime request, but Biel objected to the punishment and demanded an arbitration hearing. According to the complaint, an arbitrator found Biel had been authorized overtime pay. Despite the finding, Butts appealed the decision to the city’s personnel board, which upheld’s Biel’s claims. In retaliation for winning the arbitration award, Biel said Butts ordered Capt. Philip L. Sanchez to leak sensitive information from Biel’s personnel file to a woman contesting a traffic ticket Biel had issued her in 2000. At the woman’s hearing, Biel said he was surprised with her knowledge of his confidential file. He refused to answer any questions that were asked of him about his career with the department. Biel says after the traffic hearing, Butts used the court transcript to further discipline him in June 2000 by saying Biel did not answer questions that could have helped the woman’s case. Meanwhile, Biel was attempting to adopt two Hispanic children, one who had been sexually abused and another that suffered from chronic lung disease, hepatitis, autism, cerebral palsy and mental retardation. “Butts, knowing that the adoption procedure was underway, opted to terminate plaintiff based upon the internal affairs investigation of the (court hearing) matter on the basis that (Biel) misled (the woman) by not volunteering additional information that would have been of assistance to her in opposing the citation,” the complaint alleges. Biel said Butts knew that a termination would negatively affect his ability to adopt the children, yet he suspended Biel from duty until a termination hearing was held. However, the lawsuit states at the termination hearing, the matter was dismissed and no personnel action was taken. Biel did not attend or make a statement, and no new information that was not contained in the original internal affairs investigation — which Butts had relied on in signing the Notice of Intent to Terminate — was disclosed. After Biel was returned to duty, he said he was informed he was no longer eligible for overtime assignments. Biel says no reason was given explaining his disqualification. The stress and worry over the adoption — which was recently approved — caused Biel so much stress that he experienced episodes of high blood pressure. As similar “harassing” activities continued, Biel’s high blood pressure ultimately resulted in a disability retirement in 2001. The lawsuit does not specify the damages Biel is seeking. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 30, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/073002.pdf?ref=smdp.com)