Doesn’t want thief in ranks
A confessed thief will remain off the force despite an arbitator’s ruling that she must be reinstated to her job as a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy.
In addition to reinstatement, Sherry Waldron, who pleaded guilty to shoplifting in 2013 shortly after being acquitted of theft charges for taking plants from a Sherman park in 2012, is also due to collect more than $41,000 in back pay and benefits under an Oct. 16 decision by arbitrator Timothy B. Tobin. Waldron had previously collected $233,000 in back pay and benefits after a different arbitrator ruled that she could not be terminated for taking the village-owned plants, which Waldron said she thought had been abandoned.
The sheriff’s office maintains that Waldron’s admission that she stole groceries from a Schnucks supermarket has so damaged her credibility that she cannot effectively testify in court. Chief Deputy Joe Roesch said that the department plans to appeal Tobin’s ruling in Sangamon County Circuit Court and that Waldron will not return to duty while the case is pending.
“We are going to continue to maintain a high standard for our employees,” Roesch said. “We took the appropriate action here.”
The department has already appealed the decision of the first arbitrator who initially ruled that Waldron could not be terminated for taking the plants or for shoplifting. Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Madonia ordered arbitrator Dennis McGilligan to reevaluate the case using a less-strict standard of evidence than he did the first time. Madonia also told McGilligan to consider only the plant incident. McGilligan again ruled that Waldron must be reinstated.
The Waldron case marks the latest in a string of decisions in which arbitrators have overturned terminations and other discipline meted out by the sheriff’s office.
Just once since 2001 has an arbitrator upheld disciplinary measures that were appealed by sheriff employees. The only case that stood up came in 2010, when an arbitrator upheld the termination of Jeremy Hawks, a jail guard who got into a physical confrontation with another guard after having been previously ordered not to touch other employees.
Seven other employees have won their cases, according to documents released to Illinois Times, which asked for arbitration decisions reached in the last 20 years. In addition to Waldron, successful litigants include:
• Cole Powell, who was terminated from his position in 2000 as a lieutenant in the county jail. Arbitrator Byron Yaffe ruled that the department had not proven that Powell had engaged in an inappropriate conversation about a sexual harassment complaint, but that Powell had used the word “nigger” in the workplace. Yaffe ordered the parties to settle, and Powell was reinstated as a civil process server with back pay, minus 30 days’ salary.
• William Smith, a commander in the county jail who made crude remarks to a subordinate in the presence of at least one witness in 2007. “I need you to take my left ball and put it in your left hand and take my right ball and put it in your right hand and massage them for me,” Smith said while making hand gestures around his crotch, according to the woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint and a sergeant who corroborated her account. Smith said that he couldn’t recall the incident. Smith was demoted, but arbitrator Lawrence M. Cohen ordered him reinstated to his position as a lieutenant.
• Deputy David Timm, who was fired in 2008 after the Leland Grove police chief complained that Timm had asked a city officer to release a drunken driving suspect as a favor and later argued with the officer about the incident while in the field. While finding that requests to release suspects as favors are “repugnant,” arbitrator Gregory James Van Pelt found that such requests by officers are “widespread and commonplace and seem particularly prevalent in the law enforcement community in Sangamon County,” and so Timm couldn’t be punished for that. Van Pelt did find Timm at fault during the subsequent argument with the city officer that was heated enough that another officer had to “physically intercede.” Timm was reinstated without back pay or benefits.
• Deputy Travis Koester, who was ordered to undergo a “reevaluation” period in 2008 after supervisors became concerned about complaints regarding his behavior in dealing with the public. Koester was ordered to work under direct supervision of other deputies and told that he could not respond to calls alone unless he summoned backup. He was also told that his courtroom testimony would be monitored and that he could not work off-duty assignments for extra pay. Arbitrator Steven Briggs ruled that the reevaluation conditions constituted discipline for which the department didn’t have sufficient cause. Briggs ordered that all reference to the reevaluation period be removed from Koester’s file and that the department make him whole for any lost earnings. Koester is now the subject of a federal lawsuit in which a judge has ruled that he falsely arrested and tasered a woman in 2011.
• Charles F. Ealey, a jail guard who was ordered reinstated in 2008 after he was acquitted of official misconduct and battery charges in connection with an alleged assault on an inmate. After being terminated, Ealey pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges in connection with a disturbance in a tavern. The sheriff’s department argued that the tavern incident stemmed from the same issues with aggression that led to the battery and misconduct charges, but arbitrator Herman Torosian reinstated Ealey with a 15-day suspension, plus back pay and benefits.
• Scott Moore, a jail guard who was ordered reinstated with back pay in 2009 by arbitrator Gary D. Krueger after allegedly slapping an inmate and kneeing him in the groin. Moore got his job back after prosecutors could not locate the victim and so dropped charges of official misconduct and battery.
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
