California cop's lurid tell-all book gets him fired

July 19, 2000
Web posted at: 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT)

In this story: Slurs against gays, women and minorities Descriptions of wrongdoing RELATED SITES

PASADENA, California (Reuters) - People say the truth sets you free. But for Naum Ware, a cop who wrote a true-life tale of life inside the Pasadena police force, the truth freed him from ever having to put on a uniform again.

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On Monday Pasadena police fired the veteran patrolman, saying that his 173-page, self-published book, "The Rose Garden," contained hateful remarks about gays and women.

"We did an internal investigation and we did hearings and spent a lot of time looking at this, and the police chief decided when the smoke cleared that he was going to terminate Officer Ware," Pasadena Police spokesman Cmdr. Linsen Mayer said. Mayer declined to comment further "because it's a personnel matter."

The firing has sparked a controversy with police union officials, who said it raised serious issues of freedom of speech in that much of the book's contents, based on documented court cases and published news reports, is of public concern, which Ware was expressing an opinion about.

After 23 years on the force, 41-year-old Ware, who is also a lay Baptist minister, was told to clear out his locker and given his walking papers Monday, his attorney, Richard Shinee said.

A notice of discharge published in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times lists 12 slurs in the book against gays, women and minorities, including references to some female officers as "little tramps" and gays as "abnormal." One of the book's chapters is titled "Gays of Our Lives" -- a word play on the popular soap opera, "Days of Our Lives."

The notice also reveals the identities of officers given pseudonyms in Ware's book, the Times reported.

Ware was unavailable for comment Tuesday. He told the Times that the references were taken out of context and that he is neither anti-gay nor anti-women.

"He does not hold a bias against gays or women and they have distorted his views with regard to gays and women," Shinee said. "He's not homophobic, bears no malice or discriminatory intent against women, nor has he ever in the 23 years he's been employed, been subject to any form of discipline along those lines."

"The issue is: does he have a right to articulate concerns? These are not things he said during work hours. These are observations he made in a book that criticizes the agency," Shinee added.

In fact, this has not been his first book criticizing the Pasadena Police. In 1994, Ware wrote a book entitled "Roses Have Thorns," a tale about discrimination within the department, Shinee said, for which he received no disciplinary action.

The latest tome, which is sold in local bookstores, also includes descriptions of sexual harassment, theft, corruption, spousal abuse and other wrongdoing. "I don't think any part of this book is a figment of his imagination," Shinee said.

In his book, Ware describes one officer soliciting prostitutes, another -- known only as "the vile one" -- tearing up traffic tickets in exchange for sex and a sergeant who repeatedly rapes a young cadet in the station house.

Police officers were so traumatized by the book's contents that the police chief hired professional counselors to help them deal with it.

Shinee said that Ware, who won the department's silver award of merit in 1987, would first appeal to a city arbitrator. If that fails, a civil rights lawsuit will be filed claiming violation of Ware's 1st Amendment rights, Shinee said.

First Amendment experts have said such a lawsuit would hinge on whether the book raises issues of public concern, such as malfeasance. "The content of the book reflected issues of public concern," Shinee said.

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