Newsletters & Seminars

Violations of POBR Rights Results in
Injunction Against Department of Corrections

By: Dieter C. Dammeier
Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC

The Department of Corrections assigns Internal Affair Investigations to its Office of Investigations for completion. For years, investigators from the Office of Investigations felt that providing "twenty-four hours" notice to officers of an interrogation satisfied their obligations under the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act. As most of you know, CDC has facilities throughout the State. To obtain representation, especially an attorney within "24 hours" is obviously not practical. No doubt, this "24 hour" rule was instituted in hopes that officers would simply show up unrepresented or at least without attorney representation. This "24 hour" rule was unreasonable, lacked common sense, and as CDC found out in Superior Court, violated the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act.

Rick Rote and Kelly Wood are Correctional Sergeants for the Department of Corrections Rote is assigned to North Kern State Prison and Wood to Calipatria State Prison. In unrelated matters they were scheduled for interrogations by the Office of Investigations. Both requested as "representative of his or her choice" an attorney from Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC. POBR, specifically Government Code §3303(i) provides an officer the "right to be represented by a representative of his or her choice." One of the interrogations was set just outside "24 hours" notice. Both of the scheduled interrogations were at times when the requested attorney from Lackie, Dammeier & McGill was not available, given the short notice and location of the interrogations.

Rather than simply reschedule the interrogations to a time convenient for all concerned, the investigators went forward with the interrogations and denied the Sergeants their right to representation. Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC immediately filed a complaint for a Permanent Injunction in the Superior Court and in the interim requested a Preliminary Injunction to halt violations of POBR by CDC. It was pointed out to the Court that this was not simply an isolated case in which a couple of officers' rights were violated, but rather a pattern by CDC to circumvent POBR by denying representation with this "24 hour" notice. Moreover, it was CDC's steadfast position that it would continue such procedure thereby continuing the violations unless the Court stepped in.

A similar injunction obtained for the Upland Police Officers Association, again by Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, was presented to the Court as an illustration of the effect an injunction would have on CDC in insuring its compliance with POBR. The Court agreed and issued the preliminary injunction against CDC prohibiting them from interrogating any of its officers without "his or her chosen representative."