CAPTAIN'S TERMINATION
OVERTURNED
Tehama County Sheriff's Captain Clay Parker was reinstated to the
Sheriff's Department following the decision of Arbitrator Donald Wollett
that just cause did not exist for Parker's termination. Parker was
represented by Paul Q. Goyette of Olson, Goyette & Adams.
Parker was terminated from the Sheriff's Department on August 23,
1996, for his role in the operation of an undercover high school
narcotics program in Red Bluff. Parker served as the project director of
the Tehama County Narcotics Task Force. He and other task force agents
planned and implemented an undercover operation in the Red Bluff High
School. The undercover operation lasted approximately three months. At
the conclusion of the operation over fifty arrests were made and large
amounts of narcotics and property were seized. By all accounts the
undercover operation was flawlessly planned and executed.
Problems began for Parker when, following the conclusion of the
program, Sheriff Robert Heard initiated an investigation as to why he
was not informed of the program during its operation. The undercover
program required absolute confidentiality to be successful. Parker and
the task force agents specifically excluded Heard from information about
the program because there was no operational need for Heard to know.
Following a lengthy investigation, Parker was terminated for his
failure to keep the Sheriff informed of a task force undercover
operation and because Parker facilitated the swearing in of the
undercover agent as a reserve sheriff's deputy. Neither the task force
manual or the Department general orders required Parker to involve Heard
of the undercover operation or the swearing in of the undercover agent
as a reserve deputy.
Parker appealed and an arbitration was scheduled before Donald
Wollett. The Department presented its case over the course of
approximately four days. At the conclusion of the Department's case,
Goyette made a Motion to Dismiss for insufficiency of evidence and on
the grounds that Parker's termination was in effect a double jeopardy in
that Parker had been given a letter of reprimand on the very same
subject matter just two weeks prior to the Sheriff commencing the
investigation that led to Parker's termination. Wollett denied the
Motion to Dismiss but issued a bench decision whereby he found that just
cause did not exist for termination. Wollett further ruled that in light
of Parker's current employment situation, he should suffer a demotion.
Parker was employed by the City of Red Bluff Police Department shortly
after his termination, and is likely to continue to work there.
Parker stated, "I am happy to have the termination overturned
and have my name cleared. However, I simply cannot work in a department
that is run by Rob Heard. He was not told of the high school undercover
operation because there was no need for him to know and we wanted to
ensure the security and success of the program. Apparently that hurt his
feelings and his reaction was to try to terminate me."
