PROBATION
OFFICER EXONERATED, REINSTATED
Thanks
to the persistence of paralegal/investigator Sandi Harbottle and the
efforts of LDF attorney Barry Bennett, from the Fresno firm of Bennett
& Sharpe, Kings County Probation Officer Tracy Kaufman is back to
work, cleared of all charges. Contrary
to the old saying, "A good deed went unpunished," finally.
A six-year officer with virtually no discipline on her record,
Kaufman was terminated by her department for going out of her way to
help a juvenile crime victim. While
some of Kaufman's co-workers questioned her judgment in spending her
free time with a teenage girl, Kaufman saw it as a way to help a victim
and her family endure the criminal process.
Her department, which never even asked Kaufman about her off-duty
activities with the girl, apparently concluded that there was something
improper about the friendship. Even after a criminal investigation showed no evidence of
wrongdoing, the department terminated Kaufman anyway.
Kaufman
had worked in the Adult Court Unit for only a short time when she was
assigned to write a pre-sentencing report on an adult school employee
who had pled to unlawful sex with the minor.
In the course of preparing her report, Kaufman interviewed the
victim's mother, who at first did not want her daughter involved in the
report since there had already been a great deal of local publicity
about the case. When the
teenaged victim began to complain about not knowing what was going on,
the mother relented, and Kaufman was able to interview the girl.
The two of them struck up a friendship, and Kaufman worked with
the mother and the girl, using some of the mentoring skills she had been
encouraged by the department to use when she had worked as a school
probation officer and at the county's juvenile boot camp.
Thanks to Kaufman, the girl and her family reconciled, and the
victim became a successful student and got her act together.
Kaufman made no secret of her friendship with the victim and her
family.
Unbeknownst
to Kaufman, however, rumors came to the department that there was
something wrong with Kaufman voluntarily spending her off-duty time with
a victim. While the department may have been understandably concerned
about the victim's vulnerability, it apparently never occurred to
administration to ask Kaufman what was going on.
Instead, the department put Kaufman under surveillance, and had a
Hanford police detective initiate a criminal investigation of Kaufman.
When the parents and teenager all confirmed that there was
nothing amiss about the friendship, the criminal investigation
concluded.
In
the meantime, the chief of probation and two of his assistant chiefs had
pounded on Kaufman's door when she was home ill, insisted on entering,
and took all of Kaufman's gear. Kaufman
was told she would be fired, and probably prosecuted (no reason was
given), but that if she resigned she would be OK.
Shaken and confused by this "home invasion," Kaufman
submitted her resignation the next day.
Fortunately, after her sister advised her to get legal advice,
Kaufman called LDF and was referred to Bennett & Sharpe.
After the law firm threatened to seek injunctive relief for the
violations of Kaufman's POBR and constitutional rights, the resignation
was immediately rescinded.
The
department then terminated Kaufman for violating the department's
alleged "long standing policy" about improper contact with
victims. When the matter
went to arbitration, however, the department was unable to show that
there was any policy or practice regarding victim contact.
Harbottle, an ex-deputy sheriff and DA investigator, found many
witnesses who contradicted any claim that a policy or practice existed,
as well as several employees who corroberated Kaufman's recollection of
events. The department also
accused Kaufman, who had known the suspect briefly at a school they both
worked at, of failing to disclose their acquaintance to the department.
Harbottle also located several witnesses from the school, who
attested to the fact that there had been no real acquaintance between
Kaufman and the suspect. Finally, an allegation that Kaufman had
violated a direct order to stay away from the teenager was found
disproven when the department's administrators could not agree on who
gave the order or what was required.
Arbitrator
David Nevins ordered full back pay and benefits for Kaufman, and that
all records of the discipline be removed from her personnel file.
After a nightmarish six months of wondering whether her chosen
career was over, Kaufman was glad to be vindicated and looking forward
to going back to work. Like
other law enforcement personnel, probation officers may find their
judgment questioned, and LDF representation certainly made a major
difference in this case.
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