Calexico's finance director has been added to a defamation claim filed by the city's police union after the union obtained an internal memo that included what it said were attacks against its membership.
The memo was about pay increases for three unnamed city officials. In it, Calexico Finance Director John Quinn compares Calexico's environment last year to now, saying the council was "subservient" to the Calexico Police Officers Association and "corruption was destroying any semblance of a value system."
The union filed an initial defamation claim in December alleging that Calexico City Manager Richard Warne and Calexico Police Chief Michael Bostic made defamatory statements and engaged in the “practice of retaliating, harassing, intimidating and discriminating against the peace officer union, its leadership and its outspoken members.”
The FBI took files and computers from the Calexico Police Department in October and four officers were put on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Two of them have since been fired, according to the Imperial Valley Press.
FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said in December that the agency is looking into alleged on-duty criminal conduct but wouldn't comment further.
The police chief, however, has been vocal about problems he’s found at the department since taking over in October. KPBS interviewed Bostic in December.
In the updated claim, dated Jan. 30, the union alleges that the city's finance director “has begun to engage in the same type of illegal actions as the other defendants.”
The claim maintains that in the memo Quinn was “portraying (the union) in a false light, and fraudulently misrepresenting facts.” The claim further alleges the defendants’ statements have harmed the claimants personally, professionally and “have created uncertainty between law enforcement and the community in which they serve.”
Full story from the Imperial Valley Press: Calexico police union accusing city officials following leaked memo
