Star Free Press
Friday, April 27,
1984
County Scene
County Panel Upholds Firing of
DeputyBy Skip Rimer
The firing of a Ventura
County sheriff’s deputy who once reportedly told a supervisor he
made errors on a report because he was high on marijuana has been
upheld by the County Civil Service Commission. The commission, in a
decision announced Thursday, said the firing of Deputy Scott Shaw on
November 15 was justified. “It is the collective
opinion of the Civil Service Commission that law enforcement
officers must be held to a higher standard of conduct than most, to
ensure the confidence and respect of the citizens they serve,” the
commission wrote. “Scott Shaw, while
possessing many fine qualities which might otherwise make him an
outstanding law enforcement officer, has demonstrably failed to meet
that higher standard of conduct.”
Shaw, 23, Van Nuys, who
had been a deputy since July 1980, was fired for allegedly lying to
his superiors, falsifying reports, violating regulations by storing
evidence in the wrong locker, and acting in a manner that
discredited the department.
Four specific incidents were cited by the
commission: On June 24, while
writing up a report, Shaw misstated the sequence of events leading
to the arrest of a man in the Silver Strand area. In that case, according
to testimony at Shaw’s hearing before the commission in February,
the deputy said the man attacked him after he had stopped his car
for a traffic violation. A
witness, however, said the man never touched the deputy. On June 30, in another
report, Shaw lied about why he had stopped a vehicle in the Silver
Strand area, gave a false description of evidence, and lied about
the timing of when he tested the driver for drug symptoms. Shaw said he stopped the
vehicle because he thought it was lost or stolen, but dispatch
reports showed the deputy got information about the car only after
he had stopped it. The driver was arrested
on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. In trying to justify the
errors on the June 30 report, Shaw gave four conflicting statements
related to his observations and actions during the arrest. According to evidence
presented at Shaw’s hearing, at one point when asked about errors in
the report, the deputy at first claimed they resulted from his being
high on marijuana. He later changed his
story about why he had made mistakes, department officials said. Also on June 30, Shaw
put the evidence in the case in a storage locker instead of an
evidence locker as department policy required him to do. In its written decision,
the commission also noted that a complaint was filed against Shaw in
December 1981, alleging that he used unnecessary force on a jail
inmate, gave false statements to his superiors when questioned, and
failed to behave properly. The department later
found all of those allegations to be true. Shaw can appeal, but he
would have to do so in Superior Court. His attorney Cynthia R. Saffir of the Santa
Monica law firm of Silver and Kreisler, was not available for
comment, but an attorney in the office said no decision would be
made on an appeal until lawyers have reviewed the commission’s
decision. |
County
Panel Upholds Firing of Deputy - Star Free Press -
04-27-84 |