TERMINATED
OFFICER REINSTATED
Long
before beginning employment as a law enforcement officer, David Just had
a reputation for honesty. In
1989, Just found a bag with a large sum of money on a street in Los
Angeles, was ultimately able to find the owner of this bag of money, and
was able to return it to the grateful owner.
Just
went on to become a police officer with the Burbank Airport Police, and
then an officer with Los Angeles County Parks Police, which was merged
into the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety (OPS).
Throughout his employment history, Just continued to receive
above-average evaluations, was chosen as a field training officer and
member of the tactical response unit.
In
addition, Just received numerous commendations from the staff at his
assigned facility, the Lancaster/Palmdale Mental Health Facility.
These included numerous commendations and positive comments about
the way he spoke and dealt with the staff, that he was “much
appreciated,” and that he “represented the department very well.”
These positive comments included Just’s ability to deal with
mentally ill persons, calm down volatile situations, and prevent
injuries to staff.
Despite
this commendable work record, in June 2003, the Los Angeles County
Auditor Controllers Fraud Hotline received an allegedly anonymous
call regarding an employee of OPS, which stated that Just had been
absent from his work assignment for approximately three hours on a daily
basis and that he was using a county fuel credit card for personal use
to put county gasoline into his personal motor home.
The
department began a lengthy covert surveillance of Just, which revealed
that he worked all of his assigned hours and never took any gas for
personal use. Therefore,
the anonymously-made allegations should have been unfounded and
the case closed at that point.
However,
as is often the snowball effect in internal affairs investigations,
despite any alleged wrongdoing being unfounded, the department continued
to conduct a full-blown internal affairs investigation, including an
interrogation of Just. This interrogation included questions about Just owning a
motor home. However, after
the lengthy amount of time passed until the interrogation, Just no
longer owned a motor home, so he truthfully answered the question, “Do
you own a motor home?” by saying, “No.”
No follow-up question, such as, “Have you ever owned a motor
home?” was asked.
In
spite of his truthful answers, Just was charged with dishonesty during
his internal affairs interrogation for stating that he did not own a
motor home. Separately, he
was charged with dishonesty for submitting a timesheet for a day which
he allegedly did not show up for work, based on an allegation by an
office worker that she did not recall seeing him on a particular
day, and that he had failed to complete a timesheet for that day.
However, the timesheet in question was not an Office of Public
Safety document, log, or time card, but was rather a sign in-sign out
sheet used at the facility itself, and not part of any official record.
Just, as always, completed his logs on a daily basis, which were
picked up by the sergeants. The
department was unable to produce the log in question, apparently due to
a large number of logs being lost or misplaced by the department.
Finally,
although there was no interrogation or investigation on the last issue,
and no questions were ever asked, Just was additionally terminated for
alleged rude and discourteous contact with the public, during which he
removed a large knife from a 5150 female in the lobby of the facility.
It is unknown why the department added this last allegation after
all the other allegations involving the gas card and time worked were
unfounded. In fact, during
the Skelly hearing, the chief agreed that the dishonesty charge
regarding the motor home was unfounded, however, the letter of
termination still stood.
Just
requested a post-termination hearing before the Los Angeles Civil
Service Commission, which was scheduled to begin in March 2005.
However, Just was ultimately reinstated without the need for a
hearing and returned to work as of April 2005.
Just
was represented by the law offices of Lackie & Dammeier, LLP, in
this matter, and is grateful for the representation afforded him by the
Legal Defense Fund.
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