Four correctional officers who worked in an elite investigative unit at a high-security Northern California prison lost their final bid this week to overturn disciplinary decisions arising from an investigation into the 2020 death of a coworker.
The Sacramento County Superior Court on Monday affirmed earlier State Personnel Board findings that the four officers at California State Prison, Sacramento — colloquially known as New Folsom — had violated prohibitions against harassing, bullying and abusing others and using slurs and other derogatory language.
This included harassment of a former coworker in the Investigative Services Unit, Lt. Valentino Rodriguez Jr., a whistleblower who was found dead in his home just days after reporting misconduct within the unit to then-warden Jeff Lynch.
Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell’s 13-page ruling also affirmed that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had sufficient evidence of those violations to terminate former ISU officers Daniel Garland and Marcus Jordan and shave 10% of officers Martin Fong’s and Paul Bettencourt’s pay for 24 and 36 months, respectively.
“The Court’s inquiry is limited to whether substantial evidence supports the decision in light of the whole record,” Rockwell wrote in her ruling. “The Court does not reweigh the evidence.”
Much of that evidence came from the cellphone of Rodriguez, which contained thousands of texts between the officers. It also showed that he’d told senior officers that the...
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