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PASADENA — A policeman claims he was illegally fired for writing a novel alleging sexual abuse and corruption within his department. 

Naum Ware filed a claim with the city last week seeking unspecified damages for wrongful termination, discrimination and emotional distress. He can pursue a lawsuit if the claim is rejected. 

The 42-year-old Ontario man said he wants his job back. 

“You took a man’s job for no reason after 23 good years. I’ve done outstanding service for the city in numerous ways ... and this is my reward,” he said. 

“At this point, we would not have anything further to say about this personnel issue,” police Cmdr. Mary Schander said Tuesday. 

City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris said the city had not studied the claim in depth. 

Ware was fired on July 17 after self-publishing his book, “The Rose Garden,” which was billed as offering “tales of indecency, theft, spousal abuse, disrespect, promiscuity, rape” among officers. 

The book uses fictional names, except for that of Police Chief Bernard Melekian. 

It describes a force in which one officer is caught soliciting Hollywood prostitutes, another tears up traffic citations for sexual favors and a sergeant rapes a cadet at a police station. 

Melekian suspended Ware earlier this year, saying derogatory comments in the book about women and gays called into question Ware’s impartiality and professionalism. 

Ware’s written discharge said the book contained 12 slurs, including references to some female officers as “little tramps” and gays as “abnormal” people who choose “to change the course of nature.” 

One chapter is titled, “Gays of Our Lives” and says that in recent years, the “Pasadena PD looks more like the San Francisco PD.” 

Ware said he had every right to write the book. 

“It’s free speech and it’s well protected by the First Amendment,” he said. 

At the time of his suspension, Ware’s police union attorney said the officer had not shown any bias on duty.