The motivation for his complaint was the claim by Tom Metzger, former leader of the California Klan, that the police department had sent Seymour undercover into the Klan's inner circles to disrupt Metzger's 1980 bid for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Seymour claims that the chief of police denied that he had worked as a police reservist when he infiltrated the Klan and became Metzger's aide and confidant. He also blames the police department for not withdrawing him from the dangerous undercover detail earlier, as he had requested repeatedly. According to Seymour and court documents, a San Diego police sergeant approached him regarding an undercover detail in December 1978. Biographies of Seymour and Metzger and narrative description of Seymour's involvement with the Klan