A U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco delivered a setback this week to a bid by the city of Ukiah and former Police Chief Noble Waidelich to dismiss a federal civil lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a local woman while on duty.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin allowed the case to proceed in federal court because she found that top police officials and city administrators knew of past abuse allegations against Waidelich but promoted him in late 2022 to lead the department anyway. He was fired eight months later after the sexual assault allegations surfaced.
The victim, known only as “Jane Doe” publicly, “has sufficiently alleged that there was a ‘reasonably foreseeable’ risk that Waidelich would assault her,” Judge Martinez-Olguin ruled.
The federal judge dismissed contentions that the victim’s civil rights had been violated, however, and that police supervisors failed to act to protect her constitutional rights.
The judge found that the lawsuit “fails to identify who the supervisory officers are or to articulate what conduct they committed or their personal involvement in any constitutional violation.”
The judge, however, did find that even with knowledge of past abuse allegations surrounding Waidelich and the filing of a domestic abuse lawsuit by the police chief’s former live-in partner, city administrators went ahead and “promoted Waidelich to chief where he had no supervision.”
The court decision to allow the plaintiff’s case to proceed is a “big development” said Erich Rose, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles law firm of Johnston & Hutchinson that filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the Ukiah woman.
Rose declined further comment. City representatives and Megan Lieber, Waidelich’s Walnut Creek defense attorney, did not return calls or written requests for comments.
Judge Martinez-Olguin gave the plaintiff until Aug. 5 to amend her complaint to meet the court’s rulings.
The federal case filed in March 2023 capped a tumultuous year for local law enforcement, who along with Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster remained behind a wall of silence surrounding the Waidelich matter and other sex-related cases involving a former Willits police lieutenant and a disgraced Ukiah police sergeant.
Eyster has repeatedly refused to talk about specifics, including why the Waidelich case languished on his desk and was never charged. Sonoma County sheriff investigators conducted a probe into the woman’s sexual assault claims at the request of Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall who at the time publicly said he felt there was a need for an independent review. Kendall said he does not know the conclusions.
Eyster knows but has remained mum about any investigative conclusions.
In fact, the public only learned of the sexual assault allegation from a state Attorney General review of what local authorities had only described as a “criminal complaint.”
Eyster did not respond Wednesday to a written request for comment about the federal court ruling.
“Jane Doe” is a longtime Ukiah resident who is widely known in local law enforcement circles as a supporter of police and military personnel.
The federal lawsuit focuses on the actions of Waidelich, a local police officer who rose through the ranks beginning in 2005 to become police chief only to be fired less than a year after his appointment by City Manager Sage Sangiacomo.
The suit claims that Waidelich, then police chief in June 2022, was “on duty, in uniform, and wearing a badge and carrying a firearm” when he showed up at the woman’s Ukiah home and demanded sex.
Waidelich’s conduct that day is described in the lawsuit as “cruel, unusual, malicious, sadistic, offensive to human dignity, sexually abusive, sexually harassing, and for his own gratification.”
Jane Doe alleges in the lawsuit that she is undergoing counseling because of the “great mental and physical pain” suffered during her encounter with Waidelich, and the “grief, shock, humiliation, self-degradation, shame, disgust, isolation, and apprehension” that followed.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified general damages, medical and related expenses, punitive damages, and attorney fees.
The woman originally filed a claim for damages against the city and the police department, which was rejected in late 2022. The federal lawsuit was subsequently filed on Feb. 28, 2023, according to court documents.
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