PEMBROKE PINES - A lawsuit accuses a city police captain of having an affair with a subordinate's wife and sending nude photos of her to other officers after she broke off the relationship.
Former Sgt. Charles Laughlin said his supervisor, Capt. Daniel Rakofsky, initiated internal affairs investigations against him after he complained about the affair. The internal affairs inquiries resulted in the 18-year veteran's firing in April.
Also named in the suit are Maj. Kenneth Hall, an assistant police chief, and the city.
City attorneys this week filed a motion to have the case dismissed, but a hearing has not been scheduled. The suit was filed Sept. 14.
"The Pembroke Pines Police Department is kind of like Peyton Place," said Walter "Skip" Campbell, Laughlin's attorney. "You have an officer who went 17 years without a blemish on his record, and all of a sudden …"
Rakofsky and Hall could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by phone. Police and city officials said city policy does not allow the men to make any public statements about an ongoing lawsuit.
The attorney representing Rakofsky, Hall and the city said the suit is without merit.
"He was terminated with cause," attorney Bruce Johnson said, without giving specifics. "The allegations had nothing to do with it."
In the 18-page suit, Campbell contends that the Police Department systematically targeted Laughlin after he confronted Rakofsky about the affair and filed the formal complaint.
The lawsuit states that Laughlin thinks his then-wife and Rakofsky, who also is married, began having an affair in January 2005. However, Laughlin said it wasn't until February 2006 that he suspected the two were having an affair.
Laughlin tried to keep his cool because he was vying for a promotion to sergeant, which he received in January 2007, and it required him to complete a one-year probationary period, according to the lawsuit.
Laughlin divorced his wife that June, and she broke off the relationship with Rakofsky that October, according to the suit.
About the same time the affair ended, Rakofsky threatened Laughlin's probation status, but the lawsuit doesn't say why.
The sergeant filed a hostile work environment complaint a month later, the suit states.
Laughlin accuses Rakofsky of e-mailing nude photos of Laughlin's ex-wife to at least five superiors at the department in January 2008.
Later that month, the internal affairs inquiries began, and they continued until Hall fired Laughlin last April, citing policy violations, the suit alleges.
Laughlin is seeking more than $15,000 in damages, and reinstatement.
