By C1 Staff
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego county Civil Service Commission and the county sheriff are butting heads yet again over a deputy’s use of force against an inmate.
U-T Watchdog reports that Sheriff Bill Gore fired a deputy whose indefinite suspension was rejected by the commission, after the deputy put a “neck restraint” hold on a handcuffed inmate.
Deputy Sam Knight placed inmate Matthew Lyons in a “neck restraint” after Lyons and other inmates created a disturbance at the George Bailey Detention Facility. Knight allegedly used the restraint to lower Lyons to the floor, where he then struck him twice in the face.
Knight was placed on indefinite suspension for using improper force and failing to file a report. He appealed the suspension through the civil-service process and won in an October hearing, where commissioners said the discipline was unwarranted and awarded Knight back pay with interest.
Gore fired Knight last week, despite the decision. Knight had been with the department for over seven years.
The Deputy Sheriff’s Association declined to comment on the case, but it can be noted that the union has sued the commission three times since 1997.
Knight’s attorneys also declined to discuss the case, but in a filing on Nov. 24 they did state that the suspension was unnecessary to protect the public.
They also stated that he did not write a use of force report because his lieutenant instructed him not to.
Gore and the commission also clashed in 2012 after the termination of Deputy Aaron Aguilera for lying to his supervisor about a two-truck incident the prior year.
First the commission upheld Aguilera’s termination, but then reversed itself when evidence was ruled inadmissible on appeal.