Sexual harassment in the El Cajon Police Department
Does the El Cajon Police Department have a history and culture of sexual harassment?
That question was raised at the El Cajon City Council meeting March 24. During the Public Comment period, five speakers, led by Bonnie Price of the East County Democratic Club, questioned the city’s handling of allegations against officer Richard Gonsalves.
Sexual harassment in the El Cajon Police Department
Does the El Cajon Police Department have a history and culture of sexual harassment?
That question was raised at the El Cajon City Council meeting March 24. During the Public Comment period, five speakers, led by Bonnie Price of the East County Democratic Club, questioned the city’s handling of allegations against officer Richard Gonsalves.
On February 25, Allison Ash of Channel 10 News revealed that a sergeant (Gonsalves) in the ECPD reportedly sent “nude photos of himself to women he supervised.” One image allegedly sent to a female officer’s cellphone “showed a graphic close-up of a male’s genitals.” Gonsalves was demoted, and that officer has filed a lawsuit against him and the city.
At the March 24 meeting, four men (including myself) joined Price in saying that Gonsalves should have been fired, rather than demoted. In my comments, I stated that the city is fortunate to have a “rainy day” reserve of $10 million, because “thunderstorms” (not just rain) are coming, and predicted that the city would lose the coming lawsuit.
At the start of the current fiscal year (July 1, 2014), the City’s contingency (or “rainy day”) reserve actually stood at $12.1 million.
In a story about the Council meeting posted online on March 24, Lyndsay Winkley of U-T San Diego cited two previous lawsuits (in 2001 and 2004) asserting sexual harassment of female employees of the ECPD. Winkley also refers to the case of former police officer William Taylor, convicted in 2007 of five charges, “including sexual penetration under the color of authority and sexual battery” of women he had arrested. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
In view of that past history, it is difficult to understand why the El Cajon Police Department and the city manager did not fire Gonsalves as soon as they learned of the graphic nature of the images he reportedly sent to women in his department.
Robert Clark
El Cajon
