Fireman Loses Bid to Regain Job

A San Diego fire captain, who was dismissed because of charges that his home was a methamphetamine laboratory and that he drove a city vehicle under the influence of alcohol and drugs, lost his attempt Friday to win his job back.

However, in a second decision Friday involving firefighters and illegal drugs, the San Diego Civil Service Commission reversed a suspension handed another firefighter in connection with his 1986 arrest on drug charges.

Firefighter Joseph Rivas, 32, of San Diego, whose appeal was successful, had maintained that he had been unfairly lumped in with others caught up in a four-month police probe last year of drug use in the Fire Department. That probe originally was sparked by a tip police received about the captain who lost his appeal, Ronald R. Cervantes, 33, of San Diego.

Cervantes’ termination was “reasonable, fully justified and warranted,” the commission said Friday.

Drugs found by police officers in an undercover raid June 12, 1988 at Cervantes’ home belonged to him, the commission found. Police told reporters they found “some quantity” of drugs at the house and indications of a meth lab.

The commission also found that Cervantes, an 11-year department veteran who last served in a community education post, drove his city-supplied car June 5, 1988 after drinking alcohol and while under the influence of methamphetamine.

Cervantes denied all accusations against him at a department fact-finding hearing last Sept. 27. However, he was discharged Nov. 7.

The commission’s hearings on Cervantes’ appeal lasted four days this July.

Conduct Called Inexcusable

Though Cervantes had an excellent service record, his conduct and “continued denial” of the charges was “inexcusable, intolerable and had the potential to jeopardize the safety” of the public and other firefighters, the commission said.

“Obviously, I don’t expect Mr. Cervantes will be pleased with the decision,” said Joel Klevens, Cervantes’ attorney. “I wouldn’t be if I were in his shoes.”

Cervantes could not be reached Friday for comment.

The commission said there was not enough evidence to support an additional charge that Cervantes sold a dollar bill laced with methamphetamine to an undercover police informer.

Cervantes was one of four firefighters indicted on federal drug charges last October, capping an investigation by the Police Department in which firefighters allegedly furnished illegal drugs to undercover police officers.

Those federal criminal charges against Cervantes were deferred March 3 for a year, the commission said. If he has no criminal violations during that time, the charges will be dismissed, it said.

Attorney Criticizes Commission

The commission’s decision in the Rivas case followed what his lawyer, Thomas Waddell, called “the lamest attempt to prosecute a guy I’ve ever seen.”

Fire Department officials contended at a hearing June 29 that Rivas was arrested in February, 1986 while snorting cocaine in a restroom at the Sports Arena. He was off duty and at a rock concert.

Waddell pointed out at the hearing that the arrest was old, that the case had never been prosecuted and that senior officers in the Fire Department suspended Rivas last November only after they later learned he allegedly asked the police officer to let him go because he was a firefighter.

After Rivas was suspended for 10 shifts without pay--firefighters work 24-hour shifts--he appealed to the commission.

The commission agreed with findings by hearing officer Stanley E. Willis II that disciplinary action against Rivas would have been warranted only in 1986, not now. To try to suspend him now was “not reasonable nor appropriate,” Willis said.

In addition to tossing out his suspension, the commission agreed with Willis’ conclusion that Rivas deserves back pay. However, it ordered Rivas to submit to random drug tests through December, 1990.

One Case Still Pending

The Cervantes and Rivas cases were two of four recently appealed to the commission involving firefighters protesting department action. Still pending is the discipline case involving George V. Jessup, a fire captain.

In July, the commission reinstated seven-year firefighter Vincent Stevenson, who had appealed his termination, finding that the Fire Department’s system for dealing with employees who abuse drugs was “inequitable.”

Stevenson admitted smoking cocaine while off duty last year, but his attorney, Klevens, argued that other recent cases of firefighters abusing drugs for long periods did not result in dismissals.