Former Manhattan Beach Police Officer Eric Eccles, who was fired in March of 2011 for his involvement in an off-duty hit-and-run traffic accident, has asked a judge to reverse his termination, claiming that the “penalty is excessive” and was an “abuse of discretion,” according to court documents filed on Aug. 20.
In documents filed by his attorney Bill Seki, Eccles asks that the city reimburse him for lost wages, reinstate his position, and remove and seal all records relating to his termination from his personnel file.
City Attorney Quinn Barrow said he’d not yet been served or seen the petition. When the city is served, it will have 30 days to prepare a response. “At this point we’re going to vigorously defend this action, and we’re confident that the city’s decision was correct,” Barrow said.
On Jan. 31, 2010, Eccles and former officer Kristopher Thompson were passengers in a car collision in which the driver, fellow off-duty police officer Richard Hatten, failed to stop at the scene.
The incident cost the three officers their jobs.
In December, Eccles and Thompson were granted an arbitration hearing, during which a judge looked at the evidence to decide whether the officers were wrongfully terminated. Judge Walter Daugherty concluded that the officers were discharged for cause, and City Manager Dave Carmany affirmed the decision to uphold the termination.
A month before the arbitration hearing, Eccles and Thompson filed identical $10 million wrongful termination claims against the city of Manhattan Beach, alleging that the “public assassination” of each man’s character had interfered with their economic opportunity, personal health and relationships.
In the document, the former officers claim that the arbitration hearing would be a “moot endeavor,” as information and opinions that have circulated through city officials have jeopardized their “right to a fair trial” and have “poisoned” any potential return to the Manhattan Beach Police Department.
The officers alleged former Chief of Police Rod Uyeda compared them to Osama bin Laden in internal discussions among city staff members. “Even uttering my name in the same sentence as those fanatical, mass-murdering figures, to imply that in some way my character is comparable, is incomprehensible,” each claim stated.
In the Aug. 20 filing, Eccles includes Uyeda’s termination letter to Eccles, dated February 16, 2011, which reveals details and findings about the incident from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Internal Affairs investigation.
According to the letter, the three former officers had been drinking at Grunions in Manhattan Beach since around noon on Jan. 31, 2010. At around 7 p.m., the three left the bar together in Hatten’s two-seater Chevrolet. Eccles said he had no opinion on Hatten’s level of intoxication, which Uyeda called “untruthful and dishonest.”
After Hatten struck a car in front of him, he drove the vehicle to Dianthus Street where it died. Hatten told his passengers he’d return to the scene on foot. Eccles and Thompson left on foot to retrieve Thompson’s truck, thus not returning to the scene of the incident. “You had an absolute duty to go back to the scene as well, or at minimum, notify a supervisor,” Uyeda wrote.
In the petition, Eccles claims that his termination is “a radical departure from recent past discipline for similar or more severe conduct of other officers charged with analogous counts of misconduct.”
After the city files a response, a trial-setting conference will be held and the judge will set a date to hear the case. It’s likely this will occur in the next three to four months, Barrow said.
