Countywide : Ex-Deputy Trainee Testifies on Firing

During lengthy testimony before the county Civil Service Commission on Thursday, Paul Duron acknowledged that he made some mistakes before being fired for alleged incompetence and inefficiency by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department last April.

But Duron said the training officers who wrote the reports that led to his termination were not without flaws.

After two days of hearing his superiors criticize everything from his judgment in determining whether a suspect was suicidal to his ability to read maps, Duron, who is appealing his firing before the commission, began presenting his case by putting himself on the stand.

For three hours, Duron questioned the accuracy of some of the reports that led to his firing--and pointed to mistakes allegedly made by his teachers.

Duron, 28, who was fired after failing to complete a two-month patrol training program in 21 weeks, also testified that he was praised for his work at the Ventura County Jail, where he served as a deputy for two years before begining his training program.

Duron said that Senior Deputy Margaret Balding, who was critical of Duron’s driving ability, almost was broadsided by a vehicle while making a U-turn on the only afternoon she drove the patrol car during the five weeks she served as Duron’s partner and training officer.

He also noted that he had to point out to Deputy Karl Gruen that a suspect they were booking clearly appeared to be under the influence of heroin. Duron said other officers at the scene agreed with him, but Gruen let the suspect go.

Gruen, who was Duron’s first training officer, had testified that his trainee “didn’t see anything” while on patrol.

Duron said that Deputy Paul Gentry, another training officer, would quiz him on knowledge of the vehicle code but was unable to perform a simple mathematical equation. Duron said Gentry was convinced that two wrong answers out of 20 questions meant “I failed to answer 70% of the questions correctly.”

In response to Assistant County Counsel Leroy Smith’s questions during a 3 1/2-hour cross-examination, Duron acknowledged that once on traffic patrol he forgot to turn on his radar for an entire day, that he was slow in writing traffic tickets and reports and that once he forgot a piece of evidence overnight next to a copy machine at the station, thereby rendering it inadmissible in court.

“To be quite honest,” said Duron’s attorney, Paul Q. Goyette, after the hearing, “some people are better suited to patrol than others. But in these cases, police departments normally move people around, they don’t fire you.”

The hearing will continue Oct. 17.