Deputy Suspended for Refusing Riot Duty : Law Enforcement: Sheriff’s deputy told superiors that a hurt child and a sick father led to her decision.

A San Diego County sheriff’s deputy has been suspended for 30 days without pay for refusing to join hundreds of other officers who were called to riot duty in Los Angeles last April.

Administrators have imposed the discipline against Deputy Carla Heringer, 35, who has been with the department nine years. Heringer has asked for an appeal of the suspension, which will be heard by a sheriff’s captain. A department commander will make the final decision.

Contacted Wednesday, Heringer said she did not wish to discuss the circumstances surrounding her refusal to travel to Los Angeles with about 50 other deputies and supervisors.

But Heringer has told superiors she skipped the riots because of mounting stress caused by a recent injury to one of her children and the illness of her father, who died a few days after the assignment, according to department sources.

In addition, she had been worried about the assignment of her husband, Roy Heringer, to the department’s SWAT unit.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Robert DeSteunder, in charge of the team that was sent to Los Angeles, would not comment about Heringer. Sheriff’s deputies joined about 70 San Diego police officers and 100 more law enforcement personnel from Chula Vista, Coronado, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, National City, La Mesa and El Cajon.

The combined unit reported to the Los Angeles Coliseum the night of April 30. At 3 p.m. that day, sheriff’s deputies were told they were to meet three hours later at the Vista patrol station, from where they were supposed to travel north.

Heringer was told she would be among those assigned to the riot and to be prepared at 6 p.m. for duty. Supervisors said she never showed up and did not explain why. The deputies were deployed May 2 to respond to riots in Compton.

DeSteunder had said that nobody else in the multi-agency force refused duty.

Many in the Sheriff’s Department have privately grumbled about Heringer’s assignment, saying she need not have been included among those asked to participate, considering her family problems. Besides, deputies said, many others had volunteered for duty and were turned down.

But department policy is clear that those who refuse assignments, particularly in emergencies, can be disciplined for insubordination if they do not get permission to be excused.

Heringer’s immediate supervisor recommended the suspension, which was then approved by top administrators. A sheriff’s captain will listen to her appeal and may alter the discipline or keep it intact before making a recommendation. A commander has the final say.

Heringer is not the first law enforcement casualty of the riots. The fire chief of Westminster, a city in Orange County, was placed on administrative leave with pay last month after refusing to send his staff to fight fires in South Los Angeles.

Fire Chief D’Wayne Scott defended his action by asserting that firefighters were not adequately protected while fighting dozens of fires in Los Angeles during the riots.

During an emergency, law enforcement agencies are bound by a mutual aid agreement to offer whatever assistance possible. Scott said the agreement is not mandatory and that, because other firefighters were injured, he would have made the same decision today.

Scott eventually filed a lawsuit against the city of Westminster after he was asked to undergo psychiatric testing.