OROVILLE — A lawsuit filed in federal court against the city of Oroville alleges various complaints of racial discrimination, harassment, mishandling of evidence and more against the Oroville Police Department. The lawsuit was filed by Michael Sears on Thursday, Sept. 15.
The lawsuit details a timeline from 2018 to 2022 of several alleged examples of hostile work environment that Sears says he witnessed.
The complaint says in October 2018, Sears prepared an email to then police Chief Bill LaGrone, Lt. Christopher Nicodemus and Officer Breck Wright about a hostile work environment complaint against Sgt. Joe Deal and a report that Officer John Sanzone allegedly left rape evidence in an unsecured area and violated policy by leaving a broken meth pipe and other evidence in his patrol vehicle.
The 2018 complaint said that Sears was allegedly told by Nicodemus that he had to leave the sergeant’s office because his presence made others uncomfortable because he was African American.
The lawsuit claims that Sears was never contacted or interviewed about the complaints made nor where they investigated, as required by department policy. Rather, the lawsuit alleges that Deal, Nicodemus and Sanzone retaliated against Sears in February 2019 by creating a false investigation against him.
In another claim, Sears reported improper comments allegedly made by LaGrone in 2019 to Oroville’s head of human relations but the comments were allegedly never responded to, investigated or addressed.
The lawsuit goes further to detail more examples of improper conduct at the Police Department including an allegation that Sanzone failed to respond to calls in 2021 and allegedly stole $1,300 during an arrest. According to the complaint, the claim was not investigated and in December 2021, LaGrone, the city’s human relations department and the city of Oroville cleared Sanzone, who later went to work for the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the lawsuit, on Sept. 12, a Glenn County Sheriff’s Office employee was placed on administrative leave while the outcome of a criminal and administrative investigation is pending. The lawsuit alleges that Sanzone was the employee who was placed on administrative.
Glenn County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brandy McDonald-Deck confirmed by email Sept. 22 that Sanzone is currently an employee of the Sheriff’s Office, but did not share if he was placed on administrative leave.
This newspaper reached out to Oroville City Attorney Scott Huber but did not received a response in time for this report.
On Monday, Sept. 20, Chico State announced that the search for the next University Police Department chief has been placed on hold. Chico State Public Relations Manager Andrew Staples stated that the search was on hold because Interim Chief Nicodemus, a finalist candidate, is unavailable to attend the previously scheduled on-campus interviews.
“The university is aware of the recent lawsuit filed against the city of Oroville and the allegations contained within it,” said Staples in an email on Monday. “We are gathering more information at this time.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 21, Nicodemus was still employed at Chico State.
In 2018, a lawsuit from Sears was settled with the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, who served as a deputy for 10 years. Sears alleged that he was discriminated, harassed and retaliated against because of his race. The county settled for $645,000 with Sears and did not admit to engaging in any unlawful conduct.
A further civil suit by Sears filed against the Sheriff’s Office was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England Jr. in November 2018.