Probation member wins long fight over wrongful discipline

(Posted: Oct. 7, 2008)

By Martin Bihn
AZCOPS General Counsel

MARICOPA -- Barb Lang was a 14-year veteran and a supervisor in the juvenile sex offender unit of the Maricopa County Juvenile Probation Department. She was loved by her subordinates and co-workers and she worked exceptionally hard.

A few years ago, she found a loophole in the law that sessentially gave a "free pass" to sex offenders in certain circumstances. Knowing this was wrong, she tried to get her administration do something about it. She was told that she could try to fix the problem on her own time -- the administration would not help. So, Barb accepted the challenge.

She went to the Legislature and educated elected officials, who were shocked and appalled. Barb got sponsors for her bill and walked it through the House and Senate, and the Governor signed it into law. State officials were so impressed with Barb that they appointed her to special committees dealing with child welfare and probation issues.

Everyone was happy except the director of Barb's agency.

A few months later, Barb and her direct supervisor were meeting with one of Barb's subordinates to give her verbal counseling. Within hours, the subordinate retaliated, making absurd allegations of misconduct against Barb. The agency director got wind of the allegations and ordered a full-scale investigation. Internal Affairs interviewd 30 of Barb's peers and asked classic fishing expedition questions like, "What kid of misconduct have you seen Barb Lang commit?" And, "Have you ever seen her engaged in an inappropriate relationship of any kind?"

After months of investigation, IA found no evidence of misconduct of any kind. But, instead of dismissing the charges as unfounded, the agency dumped Barb's computer. IA spent three more months sorting through computer files.

After keeping Barb on administrative leave for nearly eight months, the department issued its notice of proposed discipline with six charges, none of which had anything to do with the original invesitigation. All were trumped-up out of the computer dump.

At her pre-disciplinary hearing, the director wouldn't listen to Barb's explanation of each charge. Instead, she was fired. That's when Barb called AZCOPS Legal.

"When the dust settled, we had nearly completely demolised the case," said AZCOPS General Counsel Martin Bihn. "The only charge that stuck was one that Barb had admitted to from day one."

Several years ago, her personal laptop died. An agency IT tech heard about the problem and offered to take the data off of Barb's personal computer and save it to her work laptop until she got a new one. Once she bought a new computer, the data was copied back from the work laptop. But, Barb forgot to erase it. That sin would have been a verbal reprimand in most places, but for Barb, it was a termination offense.

The hearing officer recogized that most of the case was unfounded, but he felt bound by the horribly harsh legal standard in the Judicial Merit rules. Because Barb had admitted to the charge, the hearing officer felt bound to uphold the discipline. Fortuately, the full Judicial Merit Board took a more sensible approach.

The Merit Board reversed the termination and reinstated Barb with full back pay. Days later, she received 24 paychecks representing nearly a year of lost pay.

Ultimately, Barb resigned. But, her gutsy year-long fight left its mark on the deparment and her co-workers. The agency director has started dealing with the Association and no further disciplinary action has occurred.