CIVIL SERVICE
COMMISSION VACATES SAN MATEO SHERIFF'S LIEUTENANT'S 48-HOUR SUSPENSION
On January 3, 1997, the San Mateo County Civil Service Commission
vacated, in its entirety, San Mateo County Sheriff's Lieutenant Michael
Lopez' 48 hour suspension. The Sheriff's Department initially suspended
him for allegedly failing to properly supervise subordinates who had
inappropriately misused County time and money during prisoner
extraditions. Lopez was represented by Carroll, Burdick and McDonough
Associate, Phil Ginsburg.
At the time of his suspension, Lopez had been employed by the
Sheriff's Department for approximately 16 years. In October 1995, he was
assigned to the Court Services and Transportation Unit which provides
court services, prisoner transportation and extraditions from out of
state. He supervised two sergeants in the Transportation Unit, one of
whom made all the arrangements for the out of state transportation
trips, including airline and hotel reservations and the scheduling of
deputies to perform these tasks. Unfortunately, during Lopez' tenure,
extradition trips were taken to three different locations during which
the deputies involved allegedly utilized excessive time to accomplish
the extradition tasks, resulting in unnecessary expenditures and
increased costs. Apparently because these extraditions occurred under
Lopez' command, he was given a 40-hour suspension.
At the Civil Service Commission hearing, Ginsburg established that
Lopez had no direct or indirect knowledge that the extraditions involved
excess time or money. Ginsburg demonstrated that there were no
departmental orders or rules which specifically governed or established
extradition policies or procedures. Any and all informal documents
pertaining to extraditions clearly placed responsibilities for planning,
organizing and supervising the out of state trips with other people.
The Civil Service Commission concluded that the evidence presented
did not substantiate the imposition of discipline and that the evidence
indicated that misconduct was not brought to Lopez' attention until he
was no longer in charge of the Unit. The Commission ordered that Lt.
Lopez be made whole for any and all lost wages and benefits as a result
of his suspension,
