Newport Chief’s Use of Seized Car Questioned

NEWPORT BEACH —  Police Chief Arb Campbell, who faces allegations of rape and sexual harassment, placed at his personal disposal a Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan that was seized by his department in a local drug bust.

Although Campbell has been assigned a city-leased Ford Taurus for his use, city records show that since August, 1991, he has repeatedly used the 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL for routine police functions or to ferry his staff for short trips during the lunch hour.

Officers and other employees within his department also said the chief frequently used the Mercedes for personal travel, including weekend outings.

Such trips might violate the state asset forfeiture law under which the vehicle was seized. The law says that property confiscated in narcotics cases can be kept by police on the condition that it be used for a law enforcement purpose and add to--not replace--existing resources. Although the statute is vague, law enforcement officials say parts of it are intended to prevent the spoils of the drug war from being diverted to personal or routine uses.

“The purpose of asset forfeiture basically isn’t to give police chiefs or anybody else the ability to ride around in a fancy car unless they are doing undercover work and must act like a fancy drug dealer,” Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco) said. He is chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Public Safety, which is now holding hearings on state asset siezure laws.

Campbell, who was put on paid leave last month after he and Capt. Anthony J. Villa Jr. were accused of rape and sexual harassment in a civil lawsuit, has been unavailable for comment. But his attorney, Bruce Praet, shrugged off concerns that Campbell misused the car before being relieved of command.

“It’s been placed into the Police Department’s fleet to be used for any law enforcement purpose,” Praet said. “The vast majority of its use is on undercover things because it’s such a non-stereotypical police car.”

If the fleet included “a pickup truck, a Volkswagen and a Mercedes, which would you use?” Praet asked. “Gee, I think I’d rather take the Mercedes. So what do you do, take the Volkswagen for the impression?”

He pointed out that the chief already has a Taurus for personal and official use, “so what’s the difference?”

Newport Beach police obtained the sedan more than a year ago after it was seized in a local narcotics case. The car is a top-of-the-line four-door model that had a list price of $51,560 in 1985. Today, similar used sedans are worth $20,000 to $30,000.

According to a confidential city memo dated Oct. 22, the car was put into police service with 75,000 miles on it in August, 1991. It was assigned to the “Administrative Division-Office of the Chief” where, the memo states, it was “used primarily by Chief Campbell.” City officials say the sedan now has about 83,000 miles on it.

Five department employees, some of whom requested anonymity, said Campbell repeatedly took the car for a variety of reasons, including Police Department business, routine hops around town and trips to the Palm Springs area. Sometimes, officers said, they saw the chief driving the Mercedes to his home at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula.

“Guys (officers) would be working out on the Peninsula and then they’d see the chief go by . . . on his way home. They’d say: ‘Geez, what is the chief doing with that?’ ” said a Newport Beach police officer, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. “It became a joke around the station.”

When asked about the car, Sgt. Ken Cowell recalled that during a weekend about four months ago he saw the chief driving the Mercedes into department headquarters. Campbell was dropping off the car after an outing with his family.

“I saw him parking the car with his wife, his daughter and a guy about the same age as the daughter,” Cowell said. “They were getting out of the Mercedes at the station and dressed in casual clothes.”

Campbell’s daughter and the young man accompanying her then walked out of the parking lot, Cowell said, while the chief and his wife, Lavonne, got into Campbell’s regular city vehicle.

“That was the one specific incident that I remember,” Cowell said. “I’ve seen (the Mercedes) gone on weekends, but obviously I don’t know for what purpose or who’s driving it.”

Another department employee, who did not want to be identified, said she has seen Campbell driving the car and that he occasionally took the Mercedes to Palm Springs during three-day weekends.

“I’ve seen him in the car,” the employee said. “Others have seen him, too. . . . Car keys for department vehicles are kept on boards around the station. He would always take the keys to the Mercedes.”

Acting Police Chief Jim Jacobs, who was appointed Oct. 15--the day Campbell was accused of raping a police dispatcher 11 years ago--said that unlike others in his office Campbell was not required under city policy to log his use of the Mercedes-Benz.

“He just grabbed the keys,” Jacobs said. “He’d just tell his secretary he was leaving. . . . There’s a row of keys, and Arb would have priority over it. If he wanted to use it, he wouldn’t have to account to anybody.”

Although Jacobs thought the Mercedes was not a newsworthy topic, he has removed it from use by the chief’s office after The Times began asking questions about it. According to the department, the Mercedes is now assigned only to vice and narcotics detectives.

“When the thing became an issue, I made the decision--that’s how the vehicle should be used; that was my order,” Jacobs said. The “questioning made me aware of how the vehicle was being used. When I became aware of it, I made the change.”

The Mercedes has been in service for more than a year, but the chief’s office only kept logs from July, 1992, to show how it and other vehicles assigned to Campbell’s staff were used. Those records, Jacobs said, do not reflect whether detectives checked out the Mercedes for undercover work.

The logs reveal that the sedan was indeed used by the chief’s staff during the day, mostly at lunchtime. From July 29 to Oct. 16, police made 42 trips using the Mercedes. Twenty-nine of them took place between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and usually lasted about an hour. Logs indicate that 38 of the trips were within the city, two were to neighboring cities, and two destinations logged were illegible.

Generally, law enforcement officials say, confiscated luxury cars are used for undercover operations or sold to raise money for police cars, weapons, communications equipment, salaries, computer software, training, rewards and jails. The seized assets are supposed to add to department resources, not replace existing items.

“You need to have a good police use for a vehicle,” said Special Agent Bill Ruzzamenti, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which helps administer the federal asset forfeiture program upon which the state law is based.

Ruzzamenti, who is assigned to DEA headquarters in Washington, declined to comment on Campbell’s use of the Mercedes-Benz. But he said some small departments have assigned luxury automobiles to chiefs or administrators instead of providing them official vehicles. Those cars, he said, must be surrendered periodically for undercover work.

Current and former Orange County officers and narcotics investigators interviewed for this story said they did not consider the use of a luxury car by a chief’s office to be a good police purpose. They said there has been some concern within law enforcement circles about how property that police obtain under asset seizure laws should be used.

“You hear stories like the chief who was driving a Jaguar around, and we don’t need those kinds of issues. . . . It sends a negative image to the community,” said Huntington Beach Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg. His department sells most, if not all, seized property, he said.

Lowenberg declined to comment specifically about Campbell.

Some local police departments have adopted tougher rules for driving confiscated vehicles to avoid even the appearance of misuse. They include driving less-expensive cars for undercover work, while the expensive autos are either sold quickly or brought out of storage for certain circumstances.