Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Bruce Watson ruled Wednesday that Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills, who came to the department from San Diego last November, can be ordered to give a deposition in a lawsuit against the city.

The suit, which was file last year by Eureka attorney Peter Martin on behalf of Eureka resident Carole Beaton, alleges that the City violated the California Constitution’s rules about separation of church and state by allowing sectarian invocations before city council meetings and using staff time and resources to promote prayer breakfasts offered at the Wharfinger building and led by Mayor Frank Jager.

A trial date has been set for Oct. 27, according to the Times-Standard.

For several months now, Beaton and her attorney have been trying to get Chief Mills to testify under oath, arguing that he, too, violated the state constitution in February by encouraging Eureka police officers to attend — while on the clock — a “Peace Officer Breakfast” that included prayer.

The City had filed a motion for protective order, trying to keep Mills from having to testify. City Attorney Cyndy Day-Wilson argued that Mills had no involvement in the incidents specifically cited in Beaton’s lawsuit, and she called the deposition attempt a “fishing expedition.”

Judge Watson shot that argument down with his ruling Wednesday — or rather he said the City needed a better argument. Watson writes in his decision (full text here) that, yes, it’s true that Chief Mills was not involved in those earlier prayer breakfasts or the invocations at city council meetings. He even goes on to say that if Beaton and Martin try to lump the Peace Officer Breakfast from this year in with the rest of the complaints, as Beaton wants to do, they could quite possibly be shot down.

Nevertheless, Watson ruled, Beaton still has a right to depose Mills. In other words, Mills has to testify under oath even though his testimony may have nothing directly to do with the allegations in the suit. The judge cites a case from 1978 that ruled, in part, “discovery is proper if it would be material to any possible issue raised by new allegations in an amended complaint.

It remains to be seen whether Beaton will be successful in getting the 2014 Peace Officer Breakfast added to her complaint, but so far the City has offered no evidence to dispute that it was improper. An invitation to the breakfast, allegedly sent to all Eureka Police Department staff, asked, “Will you take some time out of your busy schedule to join us for a great, free hot breakfast, fantastic fellowship and a fresh word from the Lord?” It went on to say, “EPD Chief Andy Mills will lead the devotional this month.

Judge Watson noted, “At this stage there is no evidence addressing the seemingly legitimate concern that City employees may have been paid public wages/salaries to attend what appears to have been a religious event.”

But, again, the court may decide that this latest prayer breakfast has to be challenged in another case entirely.