More accusations of a dismally corrupt Newport Beach Police Department (NBPD) were made today by a retired high ranking officer who has filed a lawsuit seeking damages for blocking his advancement through a rigged promotion process.
In the 27-page lawsuit filed today at Orange County Superior Court, Robert Morton alleges NBPD bosses retaliated against him for not agreeing to help cover up scandals and for not remaining silent when less talented officers won promotions because they would keep their mouths shut about corruption–corruption that included highly lucrative, secret side employment deals given to artificially boost retirement benefits and permit “double dipping” incomes for favored cops.
At the heart of the corruption outlined in the lawsuit is John Klein, who is depicted as a conniving, incompetent, hothead whose advancement to the chief of police job was blatantly illegal and an embarrassment for many patrol officers.
In one instance, Klein allegedly ordered no formal investigation into an officer who “had apparently engaged in serious misconduct,” but angrily relented after Morton, who was a licensed attorney while working as a cop, insisted the probe was ethically necessary, according to the court filing.
The lawsuit also alleges that a city conducted investigation into NBPD (a.k.a. the Blaylock report) was sabotaged before the public was given a redacted summary that whitewashed the extent of internal corruption.
Former chief Bob McDonell didn’t come out to well either in the lawsuit. He is accused in the document of continuing to raid department resources after he retired and starting the scandalous promotional process.
Morton–one of the best, most honest cops I’ve ever met–retired last year.
Jay R. Johnson, the current chief of police, is not mentioned in any of the alleged wrongdoing.
Morton’s case has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Robert Moss.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
