Judge: Officers’ rights violated
Quartzsite officials liable for damages
A federal judge has ruled that Quartzsite officials violated the free-speech rights of 10 Police Department employees who were fired after they publicly accused former Chief Jeffrey Gilbert of misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Mark Aspey said in a 60-page ruling issued last week that Gilbert, former Town Manager Alex Taft and former Assistant Manager Albert Johnson are personally liable for damages, along with the municipality.
“Truth for the most part has finally come out,” said William Ponce, one of the plaintiffs and a former sergeant on the police force. “We finally get some kind of vindication.”
Gilbert, Taft and Johnson no longer work for Quartzsite. Neither they nor their lawyers could be reached for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit stems from small-town political turmoil that has enveloped Quartzsite for years.
In 2011, police officers filed complaints against Gilbert with the Town Council, the state Department of Public Safety and the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, the state’s law-enforcement certification agency.
Among other things, the employees alleged that Gilbert unlawfully used national crime computers to investigate political foes and violated the civil rights of dissidents by making arrests without probable cause.
They also alleged that Gilbert failed to document vacation and leave time. The letter to the standards and training board said officers had taken a vote of no confidence in the chief.
The DPS investigated only some allegations and did so in a cursory manner that resulted in no referrals for criminal conduct, according to Aspey’s ruling. The standards and training board initially refused to investigate, but recently announced that an inquiry is pending with regard to Gilbert.
Quartzsite’s municipal conflict was so divisive that, at public meetings, supporters of Gilbert and the Town Council majority wore blue shirts while the opposition donned red shirts.
Members of the politicalminority group have said they were arrested on false charges at Gilbert’s direction. Prosecutors threw out all charges against them and publicly decried the abuse of police authority in Quartzsite.
After an internal investigation, however, two town administrators concluded that police employees made false accusations against the chief, thereby discrediting the community and disrupting police services.
Nine officers and a civilian employee were terminated.
Aspey’s ruling says Gilbert falsely asserted that he had been cleared by the DPS inquiry. The judge concluded that Gilbert sought to intimi- date the employees and threatened them with dismissal for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Aspey found that the two town administrators carried out Gilbert’s threats as retaliation. And, to the extent that any disruption occurred, Aspey wrote, “It appears that the chief’s behavior, including his response to plaintiffs’ protected free speech, caused the breakdown.”
A hearing date has not been set to consider damages. Meanwhile, two additional counts in the lawsuit are pending.
Laura Bruno, Quartzsite’s current town manager, said she has not had an opportunity to evaluate the ruling or speak with attorneys about a possible appeal.
Ponce said the legal victory for him and other police employees is “bittersweet” because “our names and our careers have been tainted, and it’s never going to be the same.”
TEMPE — Tempe police are warning parents about the hazards of allowing young children around cooking areas after an infant was severely burned by hot cooking oil.
Police Sgt. Mike Pooley says an 8-month-old girl has severe burns to her face and body after Wednesday afternoon’s incident.
Pooley says the baby’s grandmother was in the kitchen cooking a meal when the child pulled the cord of an electric skillet filled with cooking oil. The oil and food then fell onto the child. Pooley did not identify the child but said she was hospitalized.