By admin 
The agency in charge of refereeing disciplinary cases for California state workers was called into question this month when the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sued the State Personnel Board.
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Corrections officials wanted to reduce a correctional officer’s pay by 5% for roughly 30 weeks after he was accused of using force against an inmate and failing to report a colleague’s use of force in two January 2024 incidents. However, the personnel board didn’t side with the corrections department and dismissed allegations when the employee appealed the disciplinary measures.
The decision led CDCR to file a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court this month questioning how video evidence of alleged misconduct at Kern Valley State Prison was interpreted. Although CDCR doesn’t seek changes to the personnel board’s ruling on the use-of-force allegation, the lawsuit raises broader questions on how future cases regarding failure to report use of force will be handled.
When the personnel board ruled in favor of the employee, Administrative Judge Lori Green relied on existing policies that require an employee to report use of force they observe but not instances where they only suspect the use of force occurred. Corrections officials, on the other hand, argue the alleged misconduct was documented on video footage they believe sustained the allegations.
“If (the personnel board’s) order is not set aside, proving a failure to report a use of force case is nearly impossible,” CDCR officials wrote in the lawsuit.
With the suit, CDCR hopes to have the personnel board’s decision on that allegation nullified, or prompt a new hearing.
Failure to report use of force
Green explained her rationale in the personnel board’s order, giving a glimpse into what the video footage showed.
In this instance, officers responded to a disruptive inmate call. The officer in question was on the left of the inmate while his colleague was on the right. When it came time to put handcuffs on the inmate, the order states, his colleague made a movement that resulted in the inmate’s feet going in the air and kick the officer in question in the face, knocking off the officer’s sunglasses.
The employee in question wrote in his report that he didn’t see what caused the inmate to kick his face due to the “rapid movement and (his) positioning,” according to the personnel board’s order.
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Corrections officials, in the lawsuit, say the officer was “looking directly at (his colleague) when (that officer) used force, and (his) body-worn camera (was) facing toward and recording the incident.” The personnel board’s order states the video showed the officer looking at the inmate before the incident and attempting “to regain composure” immediately when a scuffle ensued.
“(State Personnel Board officials) failed to properly consider competent video evidence which unambiguously showed the misconduct at issue and, instead, accepted self-serving testimony from (the officer),” CDCR officials wrote in the lawsuit.
The colleague who used force in this incident was fired, according to the lawsuit, and the personnel board upheld that termination.
Use of force allegation
While CDCR is not challenging the personnel board’s determination for the officer in question’s use of force, video footage also played a role in determining what happened in that incident.
For the separate use of force allegation, the order describes video footage to show an inmate who used a walker sitting on the patio. The inmate, who was handcuffed and had waist restraints, asked if he could stand, which the officer said he could. Soon after, the inmate asked the officer’s colleague if he could pack up his stuff, to which the other corrections officer said he had no answers.
Video footage detailed in the personnel board’s order shows the inmate raising his voice and expressing suicidal thoughts while walking toward a barbed-wire fence. After the officer’s colleague instructed the inmate to stay put, the inmate turned and reportedly asked, “What you gonna do?”
At that point, the officer in question placed his hand on the inmate’s bicep and noted doing so in a report. The inmate then leaned backward and fell, pulling two corrections officers to the ground with him followed by a brief scuffle.
The use of force is allowed under certain conditions, according to the personnel board’s order, including when an inmate could be assaultive or hurt themselves — which led Green to dismiss CDCR’s allegation against the officer. Green cited the 2009 Brown v. Ransweiler decision in the California Court of Appeal that determined use of force decisions be evaluated using the information known to the officer at the time.
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The State Personnel Board and CDCR declined to comment on pending litigation.