Sorry, no free lobsters; just had to get your attention.

What we do have is the Press-Telegram’s Wendy Thomas Russell writing on a multi-million dollar whistle-blower lawsuit brought by three Long Beach police officers against the City of Long Beach, alleging the men were discriminated against after reporting that their brother officers “were misusing a police boat and diving for lobsters in Long Beach Harbor.”

Got that? The officers allegedly were diving for lobsters while on duty as members of the LBPD’s Port Security Unit–while they were supposed to be protecting the Port of Long Beach.

The episode become known inside Long Beach Police Department as “Lobstergate.”

As Thomas Russell writes, “The police boat’s windows would be left down; lines would be left in the water. Once, [Officer Craig Patterson] came aboard in the morning to find lobster remnants on the floor.”

That, and the faces of the boat’s tachometers “had been used as ashtrays for the cigars that they were smoking on the boat at night,” Thomas Russell quotes Patterson as saying.

For blowing the whistle, Patterson and two fellow officers allege they were systematically shunned by fellow officers, harassed, and denied promotions and overtime work.

The Los Angeles Superior Court trial is expected to last two weeks.

Tags: "Lobstergate, California, Long Beach, LONG BEACH HARBOR, Long Beach Police Department, Los Angeles Superior Court, Officer Craig Patterson, Port of Long Beach, Port Security Unit, press telegram, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Wendy Thomas Russell, whistle-blower lawsuit