DEPUTY’S
SUSPENSION REDUCED
By:
Anthony M. Snodgrass
Lackie & Dammeier LLP
Inyo
County Sheriff’s Deputy Lewis Roberts did what many law enforcement
officers do on a daily basis – he performed at a probation search at a
residence. Despite this
search being legally conducted, Roberts received a two-day suspension.
This
chain of events began when Roberts’ wife went into a small video
store/coffee shop in Bishop on January 6, 2004. A few customers were in the shop. After getting her coffee, she inadvertently left a wallet
containing three checks, credit cards, cash, and identification on the
condiment counter. She then
left the shop. She returned between 10 and 30 minutes later, and
inquired of the clerk if anybody had turned in her wallet.
She was told ‘no.’ She
then filed a report with the Bishop Police Department, which took a lost
property report.
Over
the following six days, Roberts conducted a preliminary inquiry into the
circumstances. He soon
discovered that the female clerk in the store was on probation.
The clerk was on probation with search terms for drugs, was an HS
11590 registrant, and had a stay away order for other individuals.
Further, among the clerk’s restrictions and conditions of
probation were that she was not to posses or use any drug, not associate
with any convicted or known drug users, not to possess a pager or
cellular phone, and, not to possess any blank checks or open or maintain
a checking account. She was
also subject to search for documents associated with checking accounts,
and was restricted from leaving the state of California. Roberts’ investigation also revealed that her husband was
also an HS 11590 registrant and also on probation, subject to search for
not only drugs but for stolen property.
Reasonably
believing that his wife’s purse had been stolen, he approached a
senior officer at the Bishop Police Department approximately six days
after the theft, and advised this officer of the situation and the
results of his inquiry. The
senior officer agreed to conduct a probation search of the residence
based on the information given to him by Roberts.
The
two then proceeded to the small travel trailer where the two individuals
lived, and did in fact conduct a probation search.
Nothing was found at the residence.
About 15 days later, the two probationary individuals checked in
with their probation officer and related the circumstances of the search
to him. The probation
officer solicited a complaint from the probationers.
Roberts
was charged with numerous violations, including poor performance of
duty, conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to maintain an impartial
attitude. He was chastised
for his actions because, according to the department, he could not be
impartial in the case where his wife was a possible victim.
Following
the department’s logic, no officer would be able to give a statement
or write a report for any incident in which he or she was involved,
including officer involved shootings, cases where the officer is the
victim (assaults on officers), and any case in which a relative is
involved. After a full day
of hearing, during which the department alleged that Roberts had
violated most of the law enforcement code of ethics, settlement
discussions were conducted, and the county withdrew the two-day
suspension against Roberts and instead imposed a letter of reprimand.
Roberts was very thankful to the Legal Defense Fund and his
attorneys at Lackie & Dammeier who made his appeal possible.
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