Bid to Oust Bishop Police Officials Rejected

A judge in Inyo County has dismissed a grand jury’s attempt to remove the Bishop police chief and one of his top sergeants, ruling that the pair could not be fired based on the accusations cited.

The grand jury, arguing that Chief Bruce Dishion and Sgt. Larry Cox were not doing their jobs properly, had invoked an obscure section of the state Government Code that allows the removal of public officials for noncriminal misdeeds.

But Robert Martin, a retired judge from the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno, ruled Tuesday that the allegations by the 11-member grand jury did not meet the code’s requirements.

“The judge agreed with our position that the standard of the code is that someone can’t be fired just for negligence, but that it has to be a purposeful failure to carry out a mandatory duty,” said Bishop City Atty. Peter E. Tracy, who represented the chief.

Tracy added that Cox, 54, could not be prosecuted under the law because the judge ruled that he was not a public official. Tracy said the accusations against Dishion, 51--which included showing favoritism in disciplining officers and allowing department morale to plummet--were not deemed firing offenses under the law.

Gary Schons, a senior assistant attorney general who presented the grand jury’s case, said “the court didn’t suggest in any way that the allegations against the chief were true or false. The judge ruled that even if they were true, they were not the basis for a removal from office.”

The grand jury’s recommendations were reviewed by the state attorney general’s office because the Inyo County district attorney removed himself from the case, citing his ongoing relationship with Dishion.

The debate over the conduct of Dishion and Cox has pitted younger patrol officers--who come from outside town and bring more rigorous ideas about police procedures--against the mostly home-grown veterans who have run the department in a more seat-of-the-pants style.

James Bassage, a retired Bishop attorney and grand jury member, was disappointed by the ruling. “I still believe in the system,” he said. “We were just part of the process. We did our job to the best of our ability.”

Tracy said the city will now work to heal the wounds within the department.

“We want good things to come out of this whole episode,” he said, “not bad things.”