Suit Charges Anti-Gay Bias at Sheriff’s Academy

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department officials routinely engage in “verbal gay-bashing” and promote an anti-gay culture in training at the Sheriff’s Academy that leads to bias on the streets, a lesbian academy graduate charged in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Lawyers for Laura Shands, 33, a deputy county marshal, said she filed the suit to challenge what they called a “culture of anti-gay sentiment and permissive bashing” that included jokes at the academy about gay men and lesbians, and training that promotes scorn for alternative sexual preferences.

Shands’ suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, names Sheriff Jim Roache and department instructors and officials. She seeks unspecified money damages and attorneys’ fees.

Roache said in a statement released Thursday that he could not comment directly on allegations that Shands’ civil and constitutional rights were violated.

But, spokesman Dan Greenblat said, the department sponsored an employment booth at last summer’s Gay Pride Festival in San Diego and is committed to openness toward “all parts of our community.”

Last month, Greenblat said, Roache circulated an internal memorandum to “all staff” that included a reminder not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The memo was sparked by publicity on issues of sexual harassment, Greenblat said.

Roache “has a track record of being demonstrably different than the prior administration on this particular issue,” Greenblat said.

Roache’s predecessor, John Duffy, was once quoted as saying that the department tried to screen out homosexual applicants because hiring homosexual deputies would pose risks to the public.

Duffy said the comment inaccurately stated his position, but it led to an ACLU lawsuit, which was settled in 1986 when the department agreed to a permanent court injunction barring the agency from firing or refusing to promote gay employees, or asking applicants about their sexual orientation.

In her suit, Shands said she heard instructors and trainees scorn homosexuals on “virtually a daily basis” during lectures and training presentations. She attended the academy for 18 weeks in late 1990--when Duffy was sheriff.

Instructors referred to gays as “faggots,” Shands said. A murder victim, apparently gay, was called a “creature,” and it was implied “this victim got what he deserved,” she said. She said she heard gays called “sick in the head.”

Shands said she spoke out in class in protest, but instructor Lt. Ken Culver sought to retaliate by trying to have her dismissed from the academy as a “disruption.”

In an interview Thursday, Shands said she did not formally disclose her sexual preference to officials at the academy. She said, though, that it was “fairly well known among many of the trainees.”

Later, she said, she disclosed her sexual orientation to officials at the marshal’s office because they received complaints about her from sheriff’s officials.

Shands has worked for the marshal’s office for about five years. She had been there for four, as a court services officer, when she entered the academy to secure a promotion. Upon graduation, she became a marshal’s deputy. She now works with prisoners at the downtown San Diego Courthouse.

She said she had worked for 10 years as a reserve officer in the El Cajon Police Department.

The lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Los Angeles office of Lambda Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The suit names Roache; Southwestern Community College, where the academy is held; instructors Culver; Lt. John Tenwolde; Lt. Kurt Fettu; Sgt. Glenn Revell; deputy Mike O’Connor; Sgt. Al Guerin; reserve Sgt. Max Jenkins; Sgt. Craig Berry; Hope Andrews; and 10 unnamed department officials.