Sheriff’s Aide Declares His Firing Unfair : Law enforcement: Assistant to Duffy and Roache admits error in authorizing helicopter ride for women prisoners but says dismissal is unwarranted.

Jimmy Wilkins, a sheriff’s special assistant fired for ordering a helicopter pilot to take three inmates for a flight over the Las Colinas jail, said Thursday that he never got permission for the flight but did not deserve to lose his job over the incident.

“You know you got a job at Christmastime,” Wilkins said in his first interview since the controversy erupted. “What have I got? I admit I made a big mistake but should I lose my job?”

Wilkins, who has worked for the department under former Sheriff John Duffy for 13 years and under Sheriff Jim Roache for two years, was fired after an internal affairs investigation concluded that he violated department guidelines by not getting permission for the helicopter flight. He will leave the department effective Jan. 1.

The 10-minute flight, Wilkins said Thursday, was a show of appreciation to three low-risk female trustees who were due to be freed from jail within days. The women had helped clean the helicopter hangar at Gillespie Field for four to five days and asked Wilkins if they could have a ride.

“I told the pilots that if they had the time, would they take the girls for a ride and then I left,” Wilkins said. “Next thing I knew, the media was playing it up like I had committed a crime. It’s something to show someone some appreciation and to lose your job over it.”

Wilkins admitted that he never got permission from Undersheriff Jay LaSuer and even offered to reimburse the department for the pilots’ time and helicopter expense. The offer was declined.

Internal affairs investigators also questioned Wilkins about a second flight in which Wilkins allegedly rode with his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s hairdresser.

Wilkins said Thursday that there was no hairdresser but an architect who took the aerial tour to produce drawings of a building in Oceanside that sheriff’s officials were interested in purchasing. The building was never bought.

Wilkins said his girlfriend accompanied them on the tour because she had introduced the architect to Wilkins. Wilkins said he had LaSuer’s prior approval.

Other highly publicized incidents were accurate, Wilkins said, including his agreement to take the three female inmates for ice cream after they had helped out with a national sheriff’s conference.

“It’s true and I’ve never denied it,” Wilkins said. “We were with other deputies who wanted ice cream and (the inmates) asked if they could go too. What could I say? Is that such a crime to let them get ice cream?”

On another occasion, when the sheriff’s new headquarters in Kearny Mesa was opened to the public, Wilkins suggested that the inmates be provided dresses during the opening ceremonies rather than having them wear jail clothing.

“I was concerned that they might be embarrassed by wearing the prison clothing,” Wilkins said. Roache decided they would keep their jail clothing on.

Media attention, Wilkins said, contributed to his firing but he admitted that some in “upper management” were out to get him.

While Roache and LaSuer had been supportive, he said, others he did not name have sought his removal during the past year for reasons he could not fathom.

Wilkins estimated that he had saved the department close to $1 million during his tenure, including coordinating the department’s move to the new headquarters, the construction of a technical training camp at Camp Elliott and the opening of improvements to Gillespie Field.