Dan Ast is a former Santa Maria Police Department lieutenant who was fired due to his involvement in a series of incidents that ultimately led to one officer shooting and killing another officer in an arrest attempt gone wrong in January 2012.
Ast later appealed to get his job back—a move that recently went in his favor when Catherine Harris, a neutral arbitrator from Sacramento brought in by the city to oversee the termination hearing, found that Chief Ralph Martin’s firing of Ast wasn’t justified.
“The record does not support the conclusion that a five-year lieutenant with an unblemished work record and no prior discipline committed gross incompetence on the night in question, especially where he made decisions in consultation with his commanding officer,” Harris wrote in the non-confidential portion of her 46-page report, released Feb. 4. “Chief Martin’s insistence on his purported right to embellish the charges [against Ast] after-the-fact is astonishing, given his long experience handling discipline and discharge cases involving police officers.”
Martin became the city’s police hief after the retirement of embattled Chief Dan Macagni in late 2012. With more than 35 years of experience with the Los Angeles Police Department, Martin was hired to bring in reform following a turbulent year for the department that included the death of Officer Alberto Covarrubias Jr. After receiving information that Covarrubias was allegedly involved in the statutory rape of a 17-year-old Police Explorer, Ast directed other officers to arrest Covarrubias while he was conducting a DUI checkpoint. A struggle ensued, and an officer shot Covarrubias—an action the Santa Barbara County district attorney ultimately found to be justified.
The attempted arrest didn’t sit well with Martin, who fired Ast in June 2013 for what he considered to be a mishandled operation.
Because he was a public employee, Ast had the right to challenge his termination. At the hearing, which took place during June and July of 2014, Ast spoke about retaliation he and two other lieutenants felt they faced under Macagni after submitting whistleblower complaints of alleged illegal activities in the department shortly before the shooting. Ast alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in August 2014 that the retaliation under Martin only got worse.
In that lawsuit, Ast alleges that Martin failed to report and concealed evidence to prosecutors that at least four other officers were allegedly aware of the rape.
“A whole bunch of officers we allege knew about the rape,” said Jonathan Miller, the attorney who represents Ast and the two other lieutenants who filed complaints: James Ginter and Norm Come. None of the three—Ast, Ginter (who is still employed with the department), or Come—wanted to comment for this story.
Miller added that the alleged cover-up of the rape has yet to be prosecuted.
Martin didn’t respond to several phone calls and emails from the Sun seeking comment. No city officials would comment further on Harris’ report, either, which was received on Feb. 9, according to a press release from the city. Santa Maria City Manager Rick Haydon has 30 days to either reinstate Ast, reject Harris’ decision, or conduct a further hearing, Miller said, adding that if Ast isn’t rehired, he has the option to amend the lawsuit to include claims of retaliation.
Haydon didn’t respond to calls from the Sun seeking comment on the report, and a press release issued by the city said officials couldn’t comment due to the issue being a personnel matter.
When reached by telephone, Harris said she can’t comment as a matter of policy, and most of the report remains confidential—at least for now.
However, Miller said that many of the details in the report can be found as allegations in the three lieutenants’ lawsuit against the city. In that suit, Ast, Ginter, and Come say they discovered several instances of misconduct. Allegations against other members of the department include excessive overtime, failing to investigate traffic accidents committed by fellow officers, receiving oral sex several times in a patrol vehicle, emailing pictures of an officer’s penis to a waitress, officers being drunk on the shooting range, and falsifying official documents.
The excessive overtime in particular created a “grave danger” to the community by allowing officers equipped with guns and vehicles to work more than 16 hours without sleep, the lawsuit alleges. Matt Kline, the officer who shot Covarrubias, was on his 19th hour of work at the time.
Ginter, Ast, and Come submitted whistleblower complaints to Alicia Lara, a former human resources manager who no longer works for the city. The complaints were supposed to remain confidential, Miller said, but the lawsuit alleges that Macagni, Lara, Haydon, and City Attorney Gil Trujillo informed Macagni, and all of them worked together to oust the three lieutenants. Those four current and former city employees are listed along with Martin as defendants in the lawsuit.
Ast also claims to have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his ordeal. All three plaintiffs are seeking damages for each claim. A trial for the lawsuit is expected to begin by December, Miller said.
As for the appeal, taxpayers don’t seem to be off the hook whether Ast is rehired or not. If he’s rehired, the city is required to reimburse back pay that could total hundreds of thousands of dollars, Miller said, adding that the city must at least reimburse his client for the cost of the arbitration if Haydon chooses to appeal Harris’ decision. If Haydon overrules the neutral arbitrator’s recommendation, the city must pay for the cost of the arbitration.
Contact Staff Writer David Minsky at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2015.