Fired Pacific Grove police officer files $1 million free speech lawsuit against city.

The former Pacific Grove police officer who was fired after months of controversy in 2020 over displaying anti-government and pro-militia decals on his truck, later followed by postings to social media with racist messages, has filed a $1 million complaint in U.S. District Court against the city. He claims Pacific Grove officials retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights.

Michael Gonzalez, who was terminated by the PGPD on Jan. 13, 2021, places the blame squarely on Councilmember Jenny McAdams, in the complaint filed on Feb. 22. Her name comes up 47 times in the complaint, which does not name her individually as a defendant, but warns she could be added at a later date.

Gonzalez claims McAdams was the one who contacted P.G. Police Chief Cathy Madalone demanding an investigation, as well as contacting the media and raising the issue repeatedly on social media and in council meetings over a period of months. He also accuses her of "digitally stalking" him seeking information that might later lead to his removal.

"He was fired because one City Council member did not like his political views," the complaint reads. "This should not happen to anyone in this country. It is a fundamental principal of American constitutional democracy that we don't fire public employees for their expression of their political opinions on their own time."

Gonzalez was fired after several months of intense public pressure in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020. The controversy in Pacific Grove began in the weeks before that homicide.

Residents noticed in May 2020 that on Gonzalez's truck, parked in the police parking lot visible from the street, were decals representing the Three Percenters and Molon Labe. The Three Percenters are identified by the Anti-Defamation League as being associated with "extremism, terrorism and bigotry." Molon Labe is an anti-government, pro-militia group. (Both groups have ties to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.)

The issue became a topic of conversation on social media and was the focus on a column in the Weekly published on June 4, 2020.

Madalone placed Gonzalez on administrative leave on June 1 for the length of an investigation. In court documents Gonzalez said that he was given the option to park his vehicle off-site, but when he hesitated, Madalone put him on leave.

He was later allowed to return on Sept. 3, with a report by a third-party investigation stating the complaints against him were "unsustained." Gonzalez publicly apologized in a written statement, claiming to not know what the decals or the groups behind them represented.

That was followed by two months of steady calls from numerous residents to the P.G. City Council demanding Gonzalez be fired. In November residents became aware that Gonzalez had posted photos of himself to his Parler social media account holding signs stating "Fuck Black Lives Matter" and "Free Kyle Rittenhouse," referring to the man who shot three people, killing two, at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

After revelations about those posts, a new investigation was announced by Madalone on Nov. 29, and on Jan. 13, Gonzalez was released by the city.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 22, 2022, contends that Gonzalez was within his First Amendment rights to make the statements on his own time.

Gonzalez's federal suit names the city, Madalone and City Manager Ben Harvey as defendants, with more possible, including McAdams and resident Randy Fairgarden, who created an online petition demanding the officer be removed. Gonzalez's complaint alleges that Fairgarden also sent notices to police departments around California warning the if they hired Gonzalez he would alert citizens and media outlets.

Gonzalez is represented by Caleb E. Mason, of Werksman, Jackson & Quinn, a Los Angeles-based firm. 

Pacific Grove released an announcement stating City Council will discuss the suit during a closed-session portion of its scheduled March 2 meeting.

An initial case management hearing is scheduled for May 24.