Robert Pitre is a New Orleans firefighter. On June 14, 2020, Pitre was working at Fire Station #24. Upon arrival, Captain Michael Ebbs directed Pitre to obtain his gear and proceed to the location of other firefighters who were responding to a fire. Captain Ebbs and Pitre were the only firefighters at the fire station.…
Errol Cruz worked as a senior trooper for the Maryland State Police. In February 2018, his supervisor, Sergeant Torres, noticed that “he could not verify Cruz’s location” using a GPS device installed in Cruz’s patrol car and discovered that he was not able to log into the GPS device throughout Cruz’s shifts. Such GPS devices…
Robert Ebe was a deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In 2011, Ebe and his wife divorced, and Ebe moved out of the family home. At first, Ebe was living in the bunk room of the Department’s West Hollywood substation. In mid-2011, however, Ebe began renting a room from Cyril Osuchukwu, who…
Jeffery Stump was a Master Sergeant for the Town of Middletown, Delaware. After an investigation, Stump was notified the Town of Middletown intended to demote him two ranks to Master Corporal. The demotion was accompanied with a reduction in pay and a probationary period of one year. Stump filed a grievance with the mayor and…
Leonardo Ortiz and Michael Ayala were officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. On December 13, 2013, LAPD patrol received a broadcast report of a pursuit of a reckless driver in a Corvette. A pursuit ensued, which ended when the Corvette collided with a Nissan Sentra at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Los Angeles…
California’s Peace Officers Bill of Rights provides that “no punitive action shall be undertaken for any act, omission, or other allegation of misconduct if the investigation of the allegation is not completed within one year of the public agency’s discovery by a person authorized to initiate an investigation of the allegation of an act, omission,…
James Davis was a juvenile correctional officer supervisor for Fresno County, California. On July 26, 2013, the County gave Davis a notice of intended order for disciplinary action. The notice included an unsigned copy of a 12-page proposed order and stated Davis could make an oral or written reply within five days. The proposed order…
On or about March 1, 2008, a citizen with whom Paulo Morgado interacted filed a complaint against him with the Office of Citizen Complaints of the San Francisco Police Department (OCC). Pursuant to its powers granted by the City Charter, the OCC investigated the alleged misconduct and shared its findings and disciplinary recommendations with the…
Patrick Leonard and Steven Barrett are Los Angeles firefighters. After they failed a psychological exam and were transferred out of the Arson Counter Terrorism Section, they sued the City claiming violations of due process and the California Peace Officer and Firefighter Procedural Bill of Rights Acts. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the…
California’s Police Officer’s Bill of Rights provides that a public safety officer under investigation by his or her department “shall be informed of the nature of the investigation prior to any interrogation.” A recent case out of the California Court of Appeals answered the question: How much “prior to” any interrogation must the officer be…
Sergeant Mark Lopez was the chairman and president of the Scotts Valley Police Officers Association Charitable Foundation. A fellow officer, Dave Ball, was also on the board of the SVPOA. The SVPOA ran an annual fundraiser called “Cops and Rodders,” which raised funds to be distributed to local organizations and schools upon request. The funds…
In the 34 years that the State of Kentucky has had a Police Officer’s Bill of Rights statute providing due process for officers under internal investigation, the Kentucky Supreme Court had never considered the issue of whether the Bill of Rights applied exclusively to the investigation of complaints made by citizens as opposed to those…
One of the rights afforded public safety officers under California’s Public Safety Procedural Bill of Rights is an administrative appeal of any punitive action or denial of promotion on grounds other than merit. The Bill of Rights defines “punitive action” as “any action that may lead to dismissal, demotion, suspension, reduction in salary, written reprimand,…
Baron Earl, a parole officer, was disciplined by his employer, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, for conducting a purportedly unlawful search of a residence. When the discipline was upheld after an administrative hearing, Earl challenged the decision in the California Court of Appeals. Earl argued that the discipline should have been reversed because…
Section 3004(d)(1) of California’s Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights, which applies to law enforcement and fire protection personnel, establishes a one-year limitation on investigations of officer misconduct. Within a one-year period, a public agency must complete its investigation and notify the public safety officer that discipline may be taken. The one-year period begins…
In June 2005, the City of Santa Rosa, California hired James Mitchel as a police captain. Beginning in 2007, various subordinate officers filed gender discrimination complaints against Mitchel and Police Chief Edwin Flint. In February 2008, the City informed Mitchel it had initiated an internal affairs investigation. Mitchel and the complainants were interviewed and an…
The Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents all police officers, detectives, sergeants, and lieutenants in the City of Los Angeles. The City is subject to California’s Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights, Section 3304 of which provides that any public safety officer who is denied a promotion on grounds other than merit or…
California’s Public Safety Officers Bill of Rights Act requires that a disciplinary interrogation be conducted “at a reasonable hour” and “at a time when the public safety officer is on duty, or during normal waking hours” unless the “seriousness of the investigation requires otherwise.” A recent case from the Los Angeles Police Department dealt with…
Under Louisiana’s Police Officer’s Bill of Rights, every investigation of a law enforcement officer “shall be completed within 60 days from the date that the investigation is initiated.” The Bill of Rights is specific as to the consequences of failing to meet this deadline, providing: “There shall be no discipline of any sort taken against…
Laurie Bisch is an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Officers in Metro are represented by the Las Vegas Police Protective Association (PPA). In 2008, while Bisch was off duty, her dog bit her daughter’s 17-year-old friend. Bisch took the girl to an urgent care facility for treatment. Unable to contact the girl’s…
On December 12, 2009, Patrick O’Hern was a police officer with the New Orleans Police Department. During his tour of duty, O’Hern left his patrol assignment and went to his private vehicle. He drove his vehicle to the top floor of a parking garage where he consumed a substantial portion of a fifth of whiskey,…
James Lewis and Wendy Hurley are San Francisco police officers who participated in a series of videos made by fellow SFPD Officer Andrew Cohen. Lewis and Hurley received 360-day suspensions for their actions in what became widely known as “Videogate.” Cohen himself quit the force. Lewis and Hurley acted out several skits in the videos…
Montgomery County, Maryland and Lodge 35 of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. On August 11, 2009, the FOP filed a grievance with an arbitrator pursuant to its collective bargaining agreement alleging that the County violated the Agreement when it unilaterally terminated a 20-year old practice of allowing…
In a 2-1 decision that seems likely to presage further appeals, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled that the State’s Police Officer Bill of Rights only applies to citizen-initiated complaints, not complaints initiated by a law enforcement agency itself. The case involved Todd Pearce, who had been terminated from his job as a police…
Lazario Ruiz was a police officer with the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Ruiz was a member of the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association. When the City fired Ruiz for untruthfulness, the Association challenged the decision in arbitration. An arbitrator upheld Ruiz’s discharge, finding that the City had just cause for its decision.…
