The State - News from May 1, 1985

The state Court of Appeal ruled that a correctional officer should not have been fired as a result of being caught wearing women’s underwear in a school yard while he was off-duty. Robert Yancey was fired from his job at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville after police found him running through an empty elementary school yard in Fairfield. Police said he was wearing women’s undergarments and his shirt was open. Yancey blamed his actions on job stress, but the state Personnel Board dismissed him and its decision was upheld by Solano County Superior Court Judge Richard Harris. The appellate court said that Yancey “did not commit a criminal act. . . . He did not violate any rule or regulation of the (Corrections) department. . . . If any discipline is warranted, the penalty imposed was grossly excessive.”