THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996               TAG: 9607110384
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   43 lines

CHESAPEAKE OFFICIALS AGREE TO SETTLEMENT WITH POLICE OFFICERS THE OFFICIALS WERE ACCUSED OF RELEASING PERSONNEL FILES ON THE POLICE OFFICERS.

Five city officials named as defendants in a lawsuit brought by three police officers have agreed, without admitting wrongdoing, to a finding against them regarding the release of personal information about the officers.

One condition of the agreement is that the officials could be cited for contempt if they release such private information in the future. The defendants also will pay court and legal fees of about $2,750.

The court action stemmed from a lawsuit filed in March by police Capt. William L. Spruill, Detective Ira T. Galbreath and Lt. Kenneth R. Kumm. They alleged that personnel files were provided to the media for ``improper purposes, including, but not limited to, the advancement of a politically expedient agenda which bore no relationship to the restoration of public confidence.''

Under the terms of the agreement, there is no admission of any improper release of information by the defendants: former Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr., City Attorney Ronald S. Hallman, interim City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee, personnel director Carolyn Darden and police Maj. Melvin Hall, head of the department's records bureau.

Spruill, Galbreath and Kumm were among five officers reprimanded in January after a two-month internal-affairs investigation into the department's handling of theft cases that resulted in the arrest of the sons of Spruill, Councilman John W. Butt and sheriff's Capt. William Brickhouse.

Spruill and Galbreath were issued permanent written reprimands by Police Chief Ian M. Shipley Jr. Kumm received a written reprimand that will be expunged from his personnel files in a year, according to city officials.

Allen Keith Butt, son of the Chesapeake councilman, has since been acquitted of receiving stolen goods. William Jeremy Brickhouse, Brickhouse's son, pleaded guilty in May to misdemeanor receiving stolen property. William Lawrence Spruill Jr., the son of Spruill, faces trial Monday for grand larceny and breaking and entering in the alleged theft of an all-terrain vehicle from Nance's home.

KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT LAWSUIT

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