Corrections officer loses job for DUI, assaulting cops
TRENTON >> A senior correctional police officer has been fired for driving while intoxicated, striking a pedestrian and assaulting three police officers after attempting to evade cops in Philadelphia.
Elvin Urrutia, who worked at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield Township, permanently lost his job after the New Jersey Civil Service Commission found he had engaged in conduct unbecoming a public employee.
Urrutia acknowledges the violent incident and did not dispute he should be penalized for his wild actions on March 12, 2012, but he unsuccessfully argued that removal from employment was unwarranted.
As a U.S. military combat veteran, Urrutia previously served in Iraq, where he was caught in active firefights, lost members of his battalion and saw civilians die. He began working as a state corrections officer in 2005 and said his excessive use of alcohol was an effect of his six and a half years of military service, according to the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law.
Philadelphia Police testified that Urrutia was driving while intoxicated when he struck a female pedestrian outside of a popular nightclub on March 12, 2012. Officers ordered the off-duty corrections officer to turn off his vehicle, but he refused and stepped on the gas, striking an officer’s rib cage with his vehicle. Urrutia then ran several red lights in the City of Brotherly Love before police stopped him and removed him from the vehicle. It took police about five minutes to subdue and restrain Urrutia, who injured several officers, according to administrative hearing documents.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections filed a preliminary notice of disciplinary action two days after that wild incident. Urrutia requested a departmental hearing, which finally took place in May 2018. The state ultimately waged final disciplinary action shortly thereafter, removing Urrutia from employment effective May 31, 2018. He appealed his termination seeking to get lesser punishment short of removal.
Urrutia graduated from Philadelphia Veterans Court on Nov. 9, 2017, which paved the way for his criminal charges to be expunged from his record. He said the state’s disciplinary action to remove him from employment was based on conduct that took place “one time on one night” stemming from his alcoholism that he said was an effect of his military combat service. He wanted to keep his job and indicated he was willing to serve a term of suspension with a path to reinstatement.
Administrative Law Judge Mary Ann Bogan, however, saw it appropriate for Urrutia to be fired. In a decision dated Dec. 4, 2018, she said Urrutia’s actions were “egregious and do not meet the standard of conduct expected of correction officers.”
The Civil Service Commission last month upheld Bogan’s decision and ordered Urrutia’s appeal to be dismissed, finding the state DOC had been “justified” in terminating Urrutia for conduct unbecoming a public employee.
Before being suspended and removed, Urrutia collected more than $60,000 in annual salary and earned thousands of dollars in overtime pay as a state corrections officer. He served at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, which is based in Burlington County in Chesterfield Township.