Client Outcomes

Arbitrator Rules Termination Excessive for Lake County Correctional Officer

Teri Dahl, Correctional Officer for the Lake County Sheriff's Department was terminated from her employment of nearly 5 years based on allegations that she had misappropriated County property, was insubordinate, created a sexually hostile work environment and engaged in discourteous treatment of the public or other employees. Specifically, Officer Dahl was charged with using county issued handcuffs for personal use by having the word Aagony inscribed upon the cuffs and with inappropriate display of a tattoo of a female figure on her inner forearm.

Officer Dahl appealed the termination to arbitration pursuant to the MOU. Officer Dahl was represented Tawni Olson, esq. of Goyette & Associates, Inc. Law firm through Legal Defense Fund. Arbitrator Ronald Hoh presided over the arbitration hearing.

The termination was based upon two separate incidents, both of which the County claimed would independently support termination. The first allegation, misuse of county property, concerned the inscription of Aagony on a pair of county issued cuffs. The evidence produced at Arbitration showed that Lake County Correctional Officers utilize County issued and personal handcuffs in the course of performing their duties. Normally, Lake County issued handcuffs are inscribed prior to issuance with marks clearly identifying them as Lake County issued. However, sometime in 1999, a set of handcuffs were issued to Ms. Dahl without the identifying marks. During this time, she also utilized her own, nearly identical pair of handcuffs.

One evening, her immediate supervisor Sgt. Doreen Duvall brought in a hand engraver to work to engrave correctional officers handcuffs. Sgt. Duvall asked any officers working at the time whether they would like their handcuffs engraved and engraved them with whatever words or marks each officer desired. Officer Dahl requested that Sgt. Duvall inscribe one pair with the word Aecstacy and the other pair with the word Aagony, two words that appear on her arms as tattoos as they have personal meaning to her. Sgt. Duvall inscribed the handcuffs without comment and admitted at arbitration that she knew that they would be used at the workplace and did not necessarily believe the words to be inappropriate.

Officer Dahl utilized the handcuffs at work for nearly two years without comment by any co-workers or supervisors. In fact, in December 2001, her then supervisor Sgt. Alexander retrieved the handcuffs off an inmate who had been transported by Officer Dahl and noted the word Aagony on the handcuffs. Sgt. Alexander returned the cuffs to Officer Dahl without comment, although she claims that she believed the word to be inappropriate. A month or two later, she spoke with another sergeant who then informed the Jail Commander, Chief Eyerly at the presence of the word Aagony on a pair of cuffs. Chief Eyerly initiated an Internal Affairs investigation and concluded that the pair bearing the word agony were county issued, that the word was inappropriate and could be perceived by the public and inmates as disrespectful and insensitive.

Arbitrator Hoh concluded that the County had not carried its burden on the handcuff issue. The evidence showed that Lake County Sheriff's Department has no policy with respect what an individual officer may have inscribed on his personal or County issued handcuffs. In fact, several officers have placed personal identifiers upon both their own cuffs and County issued cuffs. Further, the evidence supported that Officer Dahl reasonably, but mistakenly believed the cuffs to be her personal pair inasmuch as the county issued did not bear the customary identifying marks.

Arbitrator Hoh found it significant that Officer Dahl's immediate supervisors had given implied consent and approval to the inscription of the word Aagony on the handcuffs by inscribing the allegedly offensive word on the handcuffs knowing they would be used at work and returning the handcuffs without comment to Officer Dahl for their continued use. Arbitrator Hoh further noted that the County's treatment of Officer Dahl was arbitrary and discriminatory inasmuch as the County had taken no disciplinary action against the supervisors for their role in the matter.

The allegation of insubordination and violation of the County sexual harassment policy, concerned one of Officer Dahl's tattoos. Officer Dahl has approximately 15 tattoos on her person, one of which had been the subject of a grievance nearly three years prior in 1999. That grievance concerned a tattoo on her calf which contained nude female silhouettes in the form of a peace sign. Dahl had been forbidden from wearing shorts while on duty because the tattoo was uncovered when wearing shorts. In response to her grievance, she met with the Sheriff who issued a memoranda informing her that although they did not have a specific policy concerning appropriate content of tattoos, he did not want tattoos displayed at the workplace Athe likes of which would be prohibited from display at the workplace.

The allegation concerning the the tattoo on her forearm, arose during the Internal Affairs investigation concerning the handcuffs, when Chief Eyerly asked other sergeants whether or not they had ever seen a tattoo on Officer Dahl's forearm of a nude woman. Sgt. Chris Fisher had not seen such a tattoo but testified that the conversation made him Alook for it. Sgt. Fisher testified that a few days after the conversation with Chief Eyerly, he saw the tattoo for a Acouple of seconds while in the booking room when Officer Dahl was wearing short sleeve uniform shirt. Sgt. Fisher testified he was not offended by the tattoo but reported this sighting to Chief Eyerly. Officer Dahl was charged with insubordination and violation of a direct order referencing the memoranda issued by the Sheriff in response to her 1999 grievance.

On the tattoo allegation, Arbitrator Hoh concluded that although the Sheriff's memoranda in 1999 was not specific as to what it covered and what tattoos would be deemed Aprohibited, Officer Dahl should have known that a tattoo with female breasts exposed would be inappropriate at work. He concluded that this single, two second sighting, where no one complained or expressed that they took offense to the tattoo was insufficient to constitute a violation of the County sexual harassment policy. He did conclude that the Adisplay of a tattoo amounted to a technical violation of the Sheriff's order. However, he noted that insubordination connotes a course of disrespectful and conctumacious conduct that was not present in this case. He concluded that in light of the circumstances this single act of insubordination was insufficient to support termination and concluded the conduct was not likely to recur particularly in light of Officer Dahl's favorable service record and a lack of any prior disciplinary action. Arbitrator Hoh concluded that a suspension of 30 days would be an appropriate form of discipline.