Sheriff’s Dept. Fined $15,000 for Not Reinstating Pilot

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been found in contempt of court and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine for refusing to follow court orders and reinstate a helicopter pilot who was fired two years ago after getting into a fight with another deputy.

Citing “willful disobedience” on the part of the department, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne imposed the fine this week at the request of Deputy Francisco Benach, a 20-year department employee who was terminated from his job in April 1994 but then ordered reinstated by the Civil Service Commission and, finally, the court.

“The challenges to both the commission’s order of reinstatement and many of this court’s orders went way beyond aggressive lawyering,” Wayne wrote. “The actions of the [Sheriff’s Department] were clearly done for an improper purpose, i.e. for harassing the . . . [deputy] and avoiding the orders of the court.”

Department officials declined to comment.

Attorneys for Benach said the incident illustrates an “arrogance” on the part of the Sheriff’s Department.

The incident that led to Benach being fired occurred in 1993 in West Covina, where Benach and another deputy had landed their helicopter to arrest two fleeing bank robbery suspects. The deputies apparently got into a dispute over tactics used in the arrest, according to Richard Shinee, another attorney representing Benach.

The next day, the chief in charge of the helicopter unit recommended that Benach be fired--relying on the other deputy’s testimony.

But the hearing officer who investigated the matter for the Civil Service Commission questioned the credibility of the second deputy.

The Civil Service Commission ordered that Benach be reinstated. The department challenged the order in court.

Last May, Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien ordered that Benach be reinstated. The department again refused. Wayne issued a contempt order in September 1996 for the refusal to obey O’Brien’s order and levied a $1,000 fine.

At first, Benach was hired back to answer phones. Then, after another order, the department reinstated Benach as a helicopter pilot.

Wayne reviewed the department’s actions again this month, and decided Wednesday that a larger fine was in order.