Sticky-fingered deputy
Judge overturns decision to keep her on the job
COURTS | Bruce Rushton
A Sangamon County Circuit Court judge has rejected the decision of an arbitrator who decided that Sherry Waldron should keep her job as a sheriff’s deputy despite being accused of stealing plants and pleading guilty to shoplifting in a separate incident.
In throwing out the March decision of arbitrator Dennis McGilligan, circuit court judge John Madonia sided with the county on nearly every point except who will now decide Waldron’s fate. The county had wanted the matter decided by a different arbitrator, but Madonia sided with Waldron and ruled that McGilligan will get another chance to decide the case, only this time under different parameters.
Madonia in his Nov. 25 order ruled that the county, which bears the burden of proof, must show by a preponderance of the evidence that accusations against Waldron are true. McGilligan had ordered Waldron reinstated after deciding that the county needed to show “clear and convincing” evidence, a higher threshold.
The judge also decided that McGilligan overstepped his authority in deciding that Waldron should get her job back despite pleading guilty to shoplifting on charges that were filed shortly after a jury acquitted her of theft charges stemming from an incident in which she acknowledged taking potted plants from a Sherman park. Waldron claimed that she thought that the plants had been abandoned when she put them in her patrol vehicle.
Waldron was fired shortly after a surveillance camera captured her taking plants from the park in 2012, and her grievance procedure was underway when she pleaded guilty to shoplifting groceries from a Schnucks store on Sangamon Avenue in the spring of 2013. The county argued that McGilligan should use the shoplifting incident to evaluate Waldron’s credibility when she testified about the plant incident, but objected when the arbitrator decided that the shoplifting and plant incidents taken together merited a 30- day suspension as opposed to termination. Madonia agreed that McGilligan could rule only on conduct that occurred before Waldron filed her initial grievance.
Prior to McGilligan’s ruling, Waldron had offered to resign if the county would give her back pay for the year between her termination and the shoplifting incident. State’s attorney John Milhiser said that the county has offered to settle the case without reinstating Waldron, but her attorney responded by saying that she isn’t willing to settle. An attorney for Waldron could not be reached for comment. Sheriff’s officials have said that Waldron would be worthless as a deputy because she could not testify in criminal trials without defense attorneys bringing up the plant and shoplifting incidents to undermine her credibility.
If Waldron goes back on the force, she will be one of several sheriff’s deputies who have kept jobs despite allegations of misconduct. Then sheriff Neil Williamson in 2008 said that he wanted to fire deputy David Timm after the Leland Grove police chief complained that the deputy had asked a city officer to release a man who had been arrested on suspicion of DUI, then got into an argument with the officer, who refused the deputy’s request to release the suspect. Timm remains on the force. Former deputy John Gillette racked up 42 internal affairs complaints before he resigned in 2009, shortly after a judge ruled that internal affairs files regarding his conduct must be made public.
Last year, deputy David Howse agreed to a 20-day suspension after he was caught sleeping while on duty, visiting a former girlfriend while on duty and lying about his whereabouts during the course of a twomonth investigation conducted with the aid of a GPS unit on the deputy’s vehicle. The suspension came after a prior incident in 2009, when a woman accused Howse of sexually assaulting her while on duty. Internal investigators didn’t substantiate the claim, even though the woman collected a $30,000 settlement from the county, but they did find that Howse, who took nearly 18 minutes to respond to a call that came in during the alleged assault, wasn’t available for duty when he should have been.
Williamson, who didn’t run for re-election last month, wouldn’t comment on specific cases, but he said that fighting crime was easy compared to managing employees during his 20 years as sheriff. Limits on discipline imposed by collective bargaining agreements didn’t help matters, he said.
“The hardest part was trying to manage our own employees and getting them to all pull together on the same team and getting them to stay out of trouble,” Williamson said. “Rightly or wrongly, over the last 40 years I was in law enforcement, we’ve seen the unions gain immense strength in matters of employment, either people suspended for lengthy times or terminated. … It’s noticed by all the employees. It makes it extremely difficult as head of a law enforcement agency to effectively discipline employees.”
Hours after he was sworn in on Monday, sheriff Wes Barr said that he had heard about Madonia reversing the arbitrator in the Waldron case but hadn’t yet been fully briefed. He agreed with his predecessor that employee discipline is a challenge.
“I think that’s a huge part of the job,” Barr said. “It’s challenging, but I think you try to be fair and consistent.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
