COSTA MESA – The city of Costa Mesa will pay a six-figure settlement to a man who claimed a police officer planted drugs on him, resulting in an arrest and a guilty plea in court.

Months after pleading guilty, the former Costa Mesa resident said he learned the substance was not cocaine after all. Timothy Slappy succeeded in having the conviction sealed and removed from his criminal record and, in March 2011, filed a lawsuit against the city, asking for $1 million.

In the federal suit, lawyers representing Slappy claimed the officer planted the substance during the search, and that laboratory results that would have exonerated Slappy were kept hidden from him while he made his plea deal.

Nearly a year after the suit was filed, the city of Costa Mesa agreed to pay $150,000 in a settlement agreement reached this month.

In the written agreement – obtained by The Orange County Register – the city does not admit any liability, but states that the settlement “is made solely for the purpose of avoiding the burden that would be imposed upon the Parties by further litigating.”

According to court records, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on Thursday agreed to dismiss the lawsuit against the city and Robert Harris, the former Costa Mesa officer whom Slappy alleged to have planted the fake drugs.

Adam Krolikowski, one of the lawyers representing Slappy in the suit, said he and his client were satisfied.

According to the lawsuit, Slappy was arrested March 21, 2009, after being searched by former Costa Mesa Police officer Robert Harris.

In a previous interview with the Register, Slappy said he was searched by the officer because he was on probation at the time for a 2008 conviction of being under the influence of a controlled substance. After being patted down, Slappy said Harris shined his flashlight at a white substance on the ground, but Slappy said it was not his.

“He asked me, ‘What do you think, I’m a new cop?’ ” Slappy said in the previous interview. “I told him, ‘No, I think you’re crooked.’ “

Court records show Slappy had a series of drug convictions on his record, including pleading guilty in 1996 to being in possession of a controlled substance, and a conviction in 1998 of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Harris took Slappy into custody, and Slappy said he agreed to plead guilty to the charge in order to avoid jail time.

It was in spring of 2010 that Slappy was called to Harbor Court in Newport Beach, where he said he was subpoenaed for a hearing regarding Harris and several complaints that had been filed against him.

According to the suit, it was there that Slappy was told by Costa Mesa detectives that the evidence found on him was not rock cocaine. Laboratory results on the substance determined it was not drugs on April 15, 2009 – about three weeks before he was arraigned and pleaded guilty to the charges.

Messages seeking comment from the city in the suit were not returned.

In October 2011, a petition to have the conviction sealed and destroyed was approved.

Contact the writer: shernandez@ocregister.com or 949-454-7361