School Board Lets Department Chief Retire After Suspicious Gun Incident

In closed session Monday, the Los Angeles Board of Education reversed its decision to dismiss a department head who police say made up a story about being attacked by a masked assailant--possibly to cover the fact that he was carrying a gun at district headquarters.

In place of the March dismissal, former maintenance director Jim Samples--who has admitted violating district policy by arming himself on school grounds--will remain on paid leave through November and then retire.

That decision will end up costing the school system $60,800 in unused sick pay Samples had acquired during his nearly 22 years with the district, which he would have lost had he been dismissed for the policy violation.

Critics called the decision hypocritical in light of the district’s “zero tolerance” weapons policy. They complained it stood in sharp contrast to a number of votes in which the board has upheld expulsions of students who brought guns onto campuses.

Board member Jeff Horton expressed concern about the decision, which he said he had not realized was final Monday.

“With kids, we take the symbolic route” of zero tolerance, he said. “It’s very important to set a policy and then stick with it.”

Horton’s concern, echoed by other board members, prompted the board to ask that the issue be discussed again in closed session next Monday. But attorneys for the district said they had already taken the action under authority granted them by the board.

District officials said the reversal was negotiated by attorneys out of concern that Samples, 48, could win his appeal of the dismissal, filed within days of the school board’s vote to fire him.

“He was in effect fired,” said Supt. Ruben Zacarias. “Whether he walked out voluntarily or we pushed him out . . . either way, he left the district.”

Chief Legal Counsel Rich Mason said he believed the change would not affect Samples’ retirement eligibility, saying he would have qualified for full benefits regardless of how his tenure with the school system ended.

One top-ranking official acknowledged the appearance of hypocrisy but said Samples represents no threat to fellow workers or students because he will not return to work under terms of the agreement.

Samples has been on paid leave since November; that pay now will continue through Nov. 1. District officials said his appeal would probably have dragged on past that date anyway, requiring the continued payments.

On the morning of Oct. 7, 1996, after attending a meeting at district headquarters, Samples sustained a bullet wound to his torso. He drove himself out of an underground garage, then called for help.

He told workers, school police and a district doctor who came to his assistance that a masked man had shouted his name as he headed to his car, then shot without provocation.

Although the shooting left many at district headquarters feeling vulnerable, a month later Los Angeles Police Department detectives announced that Samples’ story was bogus.

Yet according to an internal district memo, although Samples has acknowledged carrying a gun, he continues to insist that he was wounded by someone else. The memo to the school board said Samples’ attorney has offered to submit him to a polygraph test to prove his innocence.

Attorney Lawrence Trygstad said he had no comment about the case other than that “Mr. Samples is retiring and that will be the end of it.” Trygstad said he had hoped the agreement would not become public.

Officials with the district said they were concerned about their ability to defend Samples’ firing, in part because of lingering legal questions about whether the district’s downtown headquarters constitutes a campus.

The confidential memo, written by district Assistant General Counsel Howard Friedman, appears to accept some responsibility for Samples being under stress at the time of the shooting, saying it was “due to his involvement in employee disciplinary matters. As a result of his role in disciplinary investigations, Mr. Samples had allegedly received anonymous telephone calls threatening his life.”