After 2-Year Battle, Seal Beach Officer Is Reinstated in His Job

A Seal Beach police officer, placed on disability leave after 1985 psychological examinations ordered by his superiors, won reinstatement to his job Thursday night, ending a two-year legal battle.

Wayne McManigal, a 20-year veteran of the force, said Police Chief Stacy Picafcia ordered him tested because he had complained about the chief and the department. McManigal’s reinstatement came exactly one week after Picafcia began a three-month medical leave for job-related hypertension.

In 1984, McManigal reported to the Orange County district attorney that city vehicles, including police cars, were being repaired by private mechanics instead of at the city’s maintenance yard. Picafcia said last week that the practice had been approved by City Hall and that the district attorney had cleared him of any wrongdoing.

McManigal said he was demoted to the property room, where he reported that evidence in some criminal cases was missing. As a result, the officer said, the chief ordered the psychological examinations in February, 1985. Picafcia, who has said he will retire in September, has vehemently denied any retaliatory tactics.

McManigal’s appeal of the city’s efforts to have him placed on permanent disability retirement was scheduled to be heard Thursday night by the Seal Beach Civil Service Board. However, City Manager Robert Nelson announced before the meeting that, based upon a medical review of the “most recent psychological evaluation of Officer Wayne McManigal, which was performed on May 19, 1987, by Dr. Jerrold Cohen, Officer McManigal is no longer disabled as defined.”

Picafcia, 43, took medical leave on the same day his officers were to be surveyed about his department’s administrative policies. On Thursday, some officers said they believed McManigal’s reinstatement was an effort to bury past problems within the department.

In a prepared statement, Nelson said that “at this time, we would like to emphasize that the city, Police Department and Chief Picafcia acted properly when it filed the application (to retire McManigal), based upon information available at that time.”