Oakland to pay as much as $2 million in groping, sexual harassment case

Angela Woodall The Oakland Tribune, Calif.
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Jul. 11--The city of Oakland is expected to pay $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit involving an Oakland police officer accused by 16 Asian-American women of pulling them over on bogus traffic stops and then groping or sexually harassing them.

If approved by the City Council, this will be the second such payment Oakland has made to settle claims involving Officer Richard Valerga, who resigned from the Oakland Police Department in 2005.

City Attorney John Russo recommended the city approve the $2 million settlement to avoid a jury trial, according to media reports. He could not be reached for comment.

In 2006, Oakland paid a $190,000 settlement to two women who claimed the city should have done more to stop Valerga from pulling them over and touching them inappropriately. The suit alleged that Valerga targeted the women -- Asian-Americans between 18 and 40 -- because of their race.

In that case, Valerga pleaded no contest to four misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and violating the women's civil rights after three other charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain. Valerga was sentenced to six months in county jail, placed on three months probation and ordered to undergo counseling.

In this latest case, all of the 16 women were Vietnamese or Chinese and many could not speak English, according to attorney Jim Chanin, who together with lawyer John Burris represented the plaintiffs.

The women, who have not been named in the suit, claim that Valerga targeted them in 2004 or 2005, near the eastern corner of Lake Merritt or the Fruitvale district.

Valerga refused to testify, but according to the testimony, the officer pulled the women over on bogus or minor traffic stops and asked them to sit in the front seat of his patrol car. He then "engaged in grotesque hands-on physical contact," Chanin said.

Neither Valerga's lawyers nor Oakland police could be reached for comment.