Barstow police officer, Randy Duran, was recently
terminated from employment by the chief of police after an investigation
into an alleged excessive use of force. A dispute arose between a
witness officer’s version of what occurred and that of Duran. Further,
the suspect who filed a complaint, had a version far different than
Duran or the witnessing officer. Unable to resolve the dispute, the
chief decided that Duran must be the one telling the lie and therefore
terminated his employment for untruthfulness. The underlying use of
force was never really an issue. Only what the witness officer thought
he saw was of relevance.
Duran was represented by attorney Bob Krause, Law
Offices of Castle & Krause, Temecula, California, throughout these
proceedings. At the very outset, Krause suggested a re-enactment and
tape recording of the re-enactment by an outside agency so that the
discrepancies could be fairly evaluated. This was literally one of those
cases that a matter of inches in the location of the touching of the
suspect was material. That is to say, grab of the throat versus upper
shirt. Put another way, a "C" clamp versus, shirt grab. Krause
never maintained that the witness officer was being untruthful, but
rather was not in a position to accurately observe what he no doubt
thought he saw. Further, Krause maintained, the "PC 647(f)"
suspect was not credible on any issue.
Krause, utilizing the local rules, and the dictates
of Skelly v. State Personnel Board was able to convene a
hearing before the city manager. Present at this Skelly,
unlike most, was the city attorney, the chief of police, the city
personnel director and the city manager. Pointing out to those present
that this was a rather unusual proceeding as it related to stacking the
deck, Krause nevertheless pushed forward the issue of the facts of the
case and pressed once again for an outside re-creation. After some days
of deliberation, the city manager ordered the further investigation. The
re-enactment was completed and after further deliberation the city
manager issued findings reinstating Duran’s employment with no
discipline action whatsoever. As Krause suspected, once a fair and
impartial person took an objective view at the evidence against Duran,
only one conclusion could be reached. To his credit the city
manager did that and prevented an ugly full-blown hearing.
Duran is now back to work as a police officer in the
City of Barstow, looking forward to a productive career. He lost no
income and thanks to LDF suffered no direct attorney fees.
