09-10-2009, 01:19 AM
Fired jailer wins back job, money
By ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office must rehire and give full back pay and benefits to a corrections officer fired for using pepper spray on two Plantation Key jail inmates, an arbiter has ruled.
Federico Perdomo, 36, will resume work Monday at the same $37,935 annual salary, including back pay to May 3, 2006, when he was fired, according to the ruling. The back pay will include pension, insurance, medical payments and seniority "as if Perdomo has not been discharged," reports say.
The Sheriff's Office also must pay Perdomo unpaid vacation, sick leave, contractual pay raises and promotions he would have received, reports say. All references to his firing also must be stricken from his record.
The Sheriff's Office is still tallying what it will cost, but it appears likely Perdomo will get at least $113,805, records show.
"It's like a wave of relief," Perdomo said Tuesday. "I'm excited, happy and really just ready to get back to work."
The Sheriff's Office declined to comment. Spokeswoman Becky Herrin said the agency still is reviewing the case.
Perdomo adhered to protocol when he sprayed the men, but Internal Affairs omitted key information in its investigation, including that Perdomo warned them to quit yelling and banging on their cells, according to what arbiter Miami attorney Martin A. Soll wrote in a Sept. 3 ruling.
The men had claimed they were sleeping and sprayed without warning, and the initial Internal Affairs report said they were not causing a disturbance.
"The arbiter slammed the investigation -- not for what it contained, but what it omitted," said Perdomo's attorney, Anthony Livoti, lead attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police union. "It would be like a movie critic coming in at the end of the movie and writing a review of the plot by seeing only the end of the movie. If this investigation was a movie, it'd be a comedy."
Should the Sheriff's Office resist Soll's ruling, Livoti said he was prepared to sue.
"If I have to file a lawsuit, I hope the same judge who sat over the criminal trial hears the civil complaint," Livoti said, referring to Monroe County circuit Judge Luis Garcia.
A Key West jury in June 2008 acquitted Perdomo on an official misconduct charge and two misdemeanor counts of battery stemming from the incident on March 19, 2006.
Perdomo has been working as a security guard and doing odd jobs since his firing, he said. Though he has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, he couldn't find work in law enforcement with the case hanging over his head, he said.
Perdomo said he was excited for his 8-year-old daughter to see him in uniform again.
"She would sometimes ask me, 'Daddy, why aren't you a policeman anymore?' and I didn't quite know how to explain it to her," Perdomo said. "She was very excited when I told her the news. You always want your children to look up to you. I've been through the cycle the last three years. I was angry two years ago. Now I just want to get back to work."
Perdomo said he's not holding a grudge against the Sheriff's Office.
"I hope they don't take it personally," Perdomo said. "I enjoyed my job. I took a lot of pride in it and it's good to have my good name in print. Now that we've come full circle, it feels good to be vindicated. I guess you could call it poetic justice."
By ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office must rehire and give full back pay and benefits to a corrections officer fired for using pepper spray on two Plantation Key jail inmates, an arbiter has ruled.
Federico Perdomo, 36, will resume work Monday at the same $37,935 annual salary, including back pay to May 3, 2006, when he was fired, according to the ruling. The back pay will include pension, insurance, medical payments and seniority "as if Perdomo has not been discharged," reports say.
The Sheriff's Office also must pay Perdomo unpaid vacation, sick leave, contractual pay raises and promotions he would have received, reports say. All references to his firing also must be stricken from his record.
The Sheriff's Office is still tallying what it will cost, but it appears likely Perdomo will get at least $113,805, records show.
"It's like a wave of relief," Perdomo said Tuesday. "I'm excited, happy and really just ready to get back to work."
The Sheriff's Office declined to comment. Spokeswoman Becky Herrin said the agency still is reviewing the case.
Perdomo adhered to protocol when he sprayed the men, but Internal Affairs omitted key information in its investigation, including that Perdomo warned them to quit yelling and banging on their cells, according to what arbiter Miami attorney Martin A. Soll wrote in a Sept. 3 ruling.
The men had claimed they were sleeping and sprayed without warning, and the initial Internal Affairs report said they were not causing a disturbance.
"The arbiter slammed the investigation -- not for what it contained, but what it omitted," said Perdomo's attorney, Anthony Livoti, lead attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police union. "It would be like a movie critic coming in at the end of the movie and writing a review of the plot by seeing only the end of the movie. If this investigation was a movie, it'd be a comedy."
Should the Sheriff's Office resist Soll's ruling, Livoti said he was prepared to sue.
"If I have to file a lawsuit, I hope the same judge who sat over the criminal trial hears the civil complaint," Livoti said, referring to Monroe County circuit Judge Luis Garcia.
A Key West jury in June 2008 acquitted Perdomo on an official misconduct charge and two misdemeanor counts of battery stemming from the incident on March 19, 2006.
Perdomo has been working as a security guard and doing odd jobs since his firing, he said. Though he has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, he couldn't find work in law enforcement with the case hanging over his head, he said.
Perdomo said he was excited for his 8-year-old daughter to see him in uniform again.
"She would sometimes ask me, 'Daddy, why aren't you a policeman anymore?' and I didn't quite know how to explain it to her," Perdomo said. "She was very excited when I told her the news. You always want your children to look up to you. I've been through the cycle the last three years. I was angry two years ago. Now I just want to get back to work."
Perdomo said he's not holding a grudge against the Sheriff's Office.
"I hope they don't take it personally," Perdomo said. "I enjoyed my job. I took a lot of pride in it and it's good to have my good name in print. Now that we've come full circle, it feels good to be vindicated. I guess you could call it poetic justice."