Garland and Jordan, who had used a racist slur and other derogatory language in the office, were cited for “Inexcusable Neglect of Duty, Discourteous Treatment of Public or Other Employees, Willful Disobedience, and Other Failure of Good Behavior” and dismissed from their jobs; Fong and Bettencourt, who repeatedly called Rodriguez “half patch” as a reminder of his temporary status on the unit and failed to report misconduct, received lengthy pay cuts, according to court filings.
At a Sept. 29 hearing with the judge, the attorney representing the four officers argued that the offensive language was commonly used as a way to cope with the stress of working in a maximum-security prison and that CDCR’s decisions were overly severe.
“There were no allegations of dishonesty, no allegations of insubordination, but we end up with this nuclear reaction in terms of discipline,” Lina Balciunas Cockrell said. “They communicated off-duty with each other, and they got fired and heavily disciplined for it.”
Timothy Knight, an attorney for CDCR, argued that the policies the officers violated “were in place to prevent exactly what occurred in this case: harassment of a co-worker.”
Knight said the officers who didn’t use slurs and derogatory language “were repeatedly not reporting the misconduct that they knew about.”
In disciplinary decisions, he said, CDCR considers the likelihood that the employee would repeat the misconduct.
“These are not individuals that, looking back, have recognized the degree of their misconduct or feel any particular noteworthy responsibility for the mistakes they made,” Knight said.
CDCR dismissed Garland and Jordan in October 2021, according to a department spokesperson. Fong and Bettencourt still work for CDCR at other prisons. Their attorney could not comment in time for publication.