QUINCY - Quincy paid $8,520 as part of a California decision relating to a civil case brought by a former police officer.

The combination of attorney fees and court fines were part of a contempt of court order issued by the Sierra County Superior Court. The order revolves around Aaron Doyle's personnel record with the Sierra County Sheriff's Office.

Doyle worked as a deputy in the sheriff's office between 2000 and 2006 in Sierra County, Calif. After he was terminated from the position, he filed a lawsuit to get his job back. The Sierra County Sheriff's Office countered with a lawsuit trying to prevent him from being reinstated, according to US District Court records. As part of the case, Doyle's personnel files were sealed by the court.

When Doyle filed his first federal lawsuit against Quincy, its former police chief and two sergeants in 2010, the city hired an attorney to inspect the sealed files, according to federal court records. Quincy's attorneys claim Doyle didn't tell the city about the specific information in the files before he was hired.

"(Attorneys for Quincy) contend that (the) plaintiff was fired from his job as a Sierra County Deputy Sheriff because he gave false and misleading testimony during an Internal Affairs investigation and an appeal hearing related to his termination, and because after his termination he deleted nearly 1,000 police department files without any authority from the department," according to a US District Court of Eastern California decision.

Doyle's attorney's rebutted the claim, stating the city knew about the allegations for months before hiring Doyle, and fired him for 24 alleged acts of misconduct. None of the allegations referred to the Sierra County cases.

After Doyle filed his first federal lawsuit, the city hired an attorney to inspect the sealed files in the Sierra County case, according to court records. The court clerk gave the attorney roughly 220 pages of documents, many of them were still sealed by the Sierra County Superior Court.

The attorney gave the files to Quincy City Attorney Allan Galbraith, who gave them to Jerry Moberg, the attorney handling the federal court case.

The Sierra County court granted Doyle an injunction, requiring the records to be returned, according to US District Court records.

As part of the Sierra County court order, six of the seven people who received the documents filed declarations stating they complied. Moberg didn't, according to Sierra County court records. Moberg told a US District Court judge, he wasn't obligated to return the records.

"Judge (Edward) Shea suggested to Mr. Moberg that the Sierra County Superior Court might hold the city in contempt because it had failed to obtain the documents from Mr. Moberg and possibly fine his client, the city, $1,000 per day until the documents were returned," according to the Sierra County court records.

Sierra County Superior Court Judge James Garbolino found the city was responsible to get the records back from Moberg. He ordered the city pay $1,000 to the court and $6,750 in attorney fees to Doyle's California attorneys.

The Quincy City Council agreed to pay the fees during a recent meeting along with an additional $770 in costs.

Moberg was not available for comment.

City Administrator Tim Snead couldn't comment on it because of the pending litigation regarding Doyle's lawsuit against Quincy.