The State - News from Nov. 20, 1988

A Newport Beach police officer has received a $35,000 settlement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which he accused of violating his civil liberties by branding him a police spy and ejecting him from a public meeting. The case is the first time anyone has collected from the ACLU on a civil rights violation claim, national ACLU officials said. Sgt. Richard T. Long won a $20,000 verdict against the ACLU in 1987 in Orange County Superior Court after he alleged that he was recognized at a 1980 ACLU public seminar on police spying, was unjustly labeled a police spy and thrown out. The court later ordered the ACLU to pay Long another $72,000 for his legal expenses. The ACLU filed an appeal but later decided to settle the case.