Monterey County has decent representation when it comes to women in the upper echelons of law enforcement agencies. In Salinas, there’s Chief Adele Frese. In Marina, there’s Chief Tina Nieto. Pacific Grove has Chief Cathy Madalone.
(Ok, that’s three. Three out of the 12 cities in the county isn’t great, but at least it’s not zero. It’s the little things, right?)
The subject of women in law enforcement came up for me last week when I came across a lawsuit filed in Monterey County Superior Court by the only woman on the tiny police department in tiny Del Rey Oaks. I should say formerly on the tiny police department in tiny Del Rey Oaks, because she’s no longer there – thus the lawsuit.
Michele Ball is her name. On Oct. 30, she sued Del Rey Oaks; its police chief and, as of mid-October, interim city manager Jeff Hoyne; DRO Police Sgt. Roger Guzman and Cpl. Brian Perez; and the city of Scotts Valley and its police chief, Steve Walpole. Her causes of action are as long as the list of defendants: wrongful termination, gender discrimination, hostile work environment, gender harassment, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with prospective economic relations.
And the picture she paints of life during her short time at the Del Rey Oaks PD as its sole female officer is a grim one. Pornographic material, including magazines, left out in the evidence room; comments allegedly made by Hoyne about a female television reporter’s attractiveness; comments from a reserve officer about the attractiveness of a woman who worked at the Monterey Regional Airport (which shares its police force with DRO); and the alleged altering of a report regarding an elderly homeless woman, done in such a way as to make Ball appear incompetent.
Guzman allegedly accused her, with Perez, her supervisor, listening in, of writing and sending derogatory emails on the city’s system. In that call, Guzman mentioned that Hoyne had discussed the investigation and firing of Ball’s husband from the Scotts Valley Police Department with Walpole while the two men were at an International Police Chiefs Conference in Chicago.
On Nov. 11, 2019, she obtained a doctor’s note to take six days of leave, and filed a complaint about Guzman; on Nov. 21, she purportedly reached out to then-City Manager Dino Pick, who is currently on leave and working as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, Policy and Programs in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense (hence Hoyne filling in for the city’s top job). In that call, Ball’s lawsuit states, she expressed her concerns about Guzman and how he was treating her and Pick allegedly told her to follow her chain of command. More alleged harassment followed; Guzman, the lawsuit claims, pulled footage from Ball’s body-worn camera and invited one of Ball’s peers to critique her performance, something that happened to no other officer.
By late January, she received a letter from the city stating officials were taking her concerns seriously. And just a few weeks later, on Feb. 12, she received a letter stating she had missed too many days (despite doctor’s notes for each absence) and hadn’t passed her probationary period.
Ball filed a claim with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which gave her leave to sue. And sue she has – including the chief of another city who she says spread unfounded rumors.
DRO Mayor Alison Kerr says because the suit involves personnel matters, the city couldn’t comment. Walpole also couldn’t comment.
Del Rey Oaks’ police department used to be off-the-hook weird, with a reserve army of rich guys who liked to play weekend warrior cop and amassed a lot of weapons they couldn’t own as civilians. Nobody has answers as to where all the weapons went. It had its own Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, donated by a rich reservist, an insane move for a city with little-to-no violent crime.
And, for a time, it also had a female cop. If they fired her because she was bad at her job, she shouldn’t have the job anymore. If they fired her because the boys didn’t want her there, she deserves to win.