By Jeff Proctor
The Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Bernalillo County corrections officer arrested this week for allegedly pointing a gun at his ex-girlfriend and their infant daughter was fired for failing to notify a supervisor that he wouldn’t be at work, a county official said.
The officer, 23-year-old Justin Kersting, was booked into the West Side jail on Monday afternoon on domestic violence charges and subsequently fired.
Vince Peele, a longtime county supervisor, had a very different experience after he was arrested on felony bribery charges June 12.
Peele, the top supervisor and liaison to the courts for the county’s house arrest program, was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes to get inmates who weren’t eligible out of jail and into the program and stealing the personal information of 28 inmates to sell for fake IDs.
Peele, a 48-year-old, 23-year veteran of county government, was placed on paid administrative leave. And there he stayed until Monday - the same day Kersting was arrested - when county officials put him back to work as a file clerk in the Public Works department.
Peele, who is a close personal friend of outgoing MDC Director Ron Torres, will continue to draw his nearly $50,000 annual salary at Public Works.
The president of the union that represents jail guards acknowledges that Kersting was still in his probationary employment status, meaning he’s not entitled to the same protections as someone such as Peele.
And according to county public safety boss Tom Swisstack, Kersting was fired because he didn’t call a supervisor to say he would be incarcerated at the MDC rather than supervising its inmates - not because of his arrest.
It’s unclear whether Peele called a supervisor to say he wouldn’t be at work on account of pending incarceration. Swisstack said he would look into it.
Still, Stephen Perkins, presi- dent of the jail guards’ union, said there have been numerous cases of non-probationary jail employees who didn’t receive the same kind of treatment as Peele, who is not a member of the union.
“We had someone who was injured on the job and transferred. That person lost about $5 an hour,” he said. “We had another one injured on the job. They couldn’t find that person another job, so they were terminated. I have never heard of (another) instance of someone being reassigned and keeping the same pay after felony charges.”
Perkins said he is “concerned” about the discrepancies.
Peele’s reassignment and steady pay “is frustrating because the decision was made by the same guys who make the decisions for our guys,” Perkins said. “We would like the same consideration ... There’s no consistency with the decision makers, and, yeah, that does concern me. It says that if they like you, they’ll find something for you; if they don’t, they’ll push you out the door.”
Swisstack said he couldn’t comment on the other cases Perkins mentioned because he wasn’t familiar with the specifics.
Still, he agrees with Perkins on principle.
“There’s a lot of room for interpretation in the current procedures, and we want to narrow that,” he said. “The procedures are not consistent now, and the County Commission is directing us to change that. So there are going to be some decisions made regarding how we handle time frames on administrative leave, termination, reassignment and leave without pay.”
Swisstack said the county does have a leave-without-pay option in place.
“But, honestly, I couldn’t tell you if it’s ever been used,” he said.
A group of county officials that includes Deputy County Manager Renetta Torres is drafting a policy on leave and termination, Swisstack said.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal