Former Oroville police officers placed on leave from Chico State jobs over lawsuit

Two former Oroville Police Department officers named in a federal civil rights lawsuit last week that alleges sexual harassment and sex on duty by some members of the department have been placed on leave from their new jobs with Chico State University police, a school spokesman confirmed Monday.

Former Oroville Police Chief Joe Deal, who was accused in the lawsuit of having sex on duty, ignoring criminal acts by others in the department and of pressuring officers to use his wife as their Realtor, was placed on administrative leave from the Chico State sergeant’s job he has held since last August, spokesman Andrew Staples wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee.

Deal had served as the Oroville police chief until his firing in March 2021, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported at the time.

Chico State Officer Ray Stott, who had worked at the university since January, also was placed on leave while the school “gathers information pertaining to the lawsuit,” Staples wrote.

“While we follow all due process requirements, the alleged acts are of concern and not acceptable for any member of our campus law enforcement,” Staples added.

The move, first reported by Chico State’s independent student newspaper, The Orion, follows a report in The Bee last week about the Oroville lawsuit, which was filed by Chico attorney Larry Baumbach on behalf of fired Officer Robert Raiter.

Raiter’s lawsuit outlines allegations that officers had sex on duty with their girlfriends, or “beat wives,” something considered a “rite of pasage.” The suit also alleges that Stott harassed a female officer and took artwork from the home of a Black man and “hung it in his office like trophies.”

Deal and Stott did not respond to requests for comment last week, and Oroville city Administrator Bill LaGrone, who is also the acting police chief, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Raiter had worked at the department since 2015 and earned superior evaulations, but alleges in the lawsuit that he was driven from his job after volunteering information about sexual harassment and misconduct in internal affairs probes and with Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

Ramsey told The Bee last week that there is no ongoing probe of the Oroville Police Department.

Raiter’s suit says he was fired after acknowledging he had sex with his girlfriend while he was on duty, something the lawsuit says was encouraged as part of the department’s “pattern and practice and culture.”

He also was accused of not wearing a mask during a traffic stop and having a traffic collision, the lawsuit says.