By Lori Pilger
Lincoln Journal Star, Neb.
LINCOLN, Neb. — The Lancaster County Department of Corrections must reinstate an employee fired for speeding 27 mph over the speed limit and give him back pay, following a judge’s recent ruling.
The Lancaster County Attorney had sought review of the Personnel Policy Board’s 3-2 decision on June 10, reversing Officer Erick Moreno’s termination, finding that just cause did not support it under the collective bargaining agreement.
In a ruling this month, Lancaster County District Judge Kevin McManaman affirmed the board’s decision.
According to the order, Moreno worked the second and third shift as a correctional officer at the Lancaster County jail from Feb. 8, 2023, until his termination April 8, 2025.
He wasn’t a transport officer and drove a county vehicle only twice during that time.
Moreno had no prior discipline, and his performance evaluations showed he met or exceeded all expectations.
“Moreno’s supervisors praised him as an asset to the department who frequently volunteered for extra duties and assisted in translating for Spanish-speaking inmates,” McManaman wrote.
On Aug. 27, 2024, the Lancaster County Board changed the job classification description for correctional officers, like Moreno, adding that they need to be able to be insured by the county’s insurance carrier.
Three days later, Moreno got a speeding ticket for going 27 mph over the speed limit while off duty in his personal vehicle.
He reported the ticket to his supervisor and was sentenced to a $200 fine, which he paid.
The following February, Jail Director Brad Johnson sent him a letter prohibiting him from working and giving him six weeks to become re-eligible under the county’s insurance requirement.
But the only way to do that would be if Moreno were to petition the court to set aside his conviction. When Moreno filed his petition, the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office opposed it, arguing too little time had passed since his conviction.
The judge agreed and denied it, and on April 8, Johnson terminated Moreno’s employment.
McManaman said three other correctional officers also became uninsurable due to traffic convictions, including one caught speeding 33 mph over the speed limit in March 2024, before she was hired, and two others, both convicted of negligent driving in 2019.
All three had the convictions set aside and remain employed.
In a split decision last summer, the County Personnel Board reversed Moreno’s firing, citing his lack of disciplinary record and work performance and how the other officers in similar circumstances had gotten more time to have their convictions set aside.
In his order April 3 , McManaman said, while the county argued that the board had improperly considered how little Moreno drives as part of his job, assessing how significant driving was to his job fell squarely within their inquiry.
“The board was not rewriting the job description or usurping management prerogatives; it was weighing the practical significance of the infraction as the bargaining agreement required,” the judge said.
McManaman said his role wasn’t to determine whether he would have reached the same conclusion as the board, but whether the board’s decision was “so implausible that it could not be ascribed to a difference in view or the product of agency expertise.”
“It is not,” he said.
He said the board heard testimony, weighed evidence, applied his labor contract and “reached a conclusion that falls within the range of reasonable outcomes the evidence supports.”
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