Santa Paula Officer Accused of Bigamy Sues to Get Job Back

A Santa Paula police officer fired for apparently having two wives filed a lawsuit Wednesday in an attempt to win back his badge.

William Woodson, a veteran of more than 10 years on the force, lost his job in 1993 after city officials concluded that he married his pregnant girlfriend even though his divorce from his third wife was not final, city records show.

Woodson appealed his firing, but the city upheld it in January.

In a Superior Court lawsuit filed Wednesday, Woodson claims Santa Paula Police Chief Walt Adair and the administrative hearing officer who upheld the firing abused their authority.

Asking the court to set aside the firing, Woodson also argues that “the penalty imposed is patently excessive in light of the misconduct which (the city) found to have occurred.”

Woodson could not be reached Wednesday. But his attorney, William J. Hadden, said Woodson never intended to have two wives at once. He would not elaborate.

Santa Paula officials, however, came to a different conclusion after investigating Woodson’s marital status. They also concluded that Woodson had submitted fraudulent documents to the county recorder’s office.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office reviewed the Police Department’s bigamy complaint against Woodson but declined to file charges. But Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia J. Kelliher said that does not mean the complaint was not valid. It just means that prosecutors were not certain they could prove the case against Woodson beyond a reasonable doubt.

Adair initially notified Woodson of the firing on March 8, 1993.

In the notification letter, Adair said he had determined that Woodson was still married to his third wife in December, 1992, when he married Cathy Jo Musil, his fourth bride.

Woodson’s third marriage lasted until Feb. 18, 1993, which means he had two wives for nearly 10 weeks, according to Adair’s letter.

The letter also said that the county recorder’s officer initially rejected Woodson’s application for a license to marry his fourth wife because the former officer had not completed divorce proceedings with his third wife.

But Woodson was later able to persuade county officials to grant him a marriage license by presenting documents related to his second divorce, according to Adair’s letter.

Adair declined to comment Wednesday other than saying that Woodson was an officer in Santa Paula for about a decade.

The city’s administrative hearing officer in the case, Robert F. Grogan, also concluded that Woodson had committed bigamy and lied to the recorder’s office in the process.

“It is undisputed that the appellant was married to two women at the same time,” Grogan wrote, upholding the dismissal.

Grogan also noted that Woodson’s fourth wife was pregnant at the time Woodson married her and needed his health benefits.

“It is my opinion that in order to overcome this problem, (he) fraudulently obtained a marriage license using the final dissolution of his (second) marriage,” Grogan wrote.

Attorney Hadden said that a Ventura County judge, rather than a jury, will decide the issue based on the documents on record from Woodson’s administrative hearing.