Local
Judge: Ex-corrections officer can’t get job back
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
December 30, 2008
A federal appeals court has ruled that a former juvenile corrections officer for the District who was fired after three kids escaped her custody can’t have her job back because she didn’t follow the rules for appealing her firing.
Sallie Johnson was fired from Oak Hill Youth Center after three juvenile offenders snuck away in November 2001. A city judge, however, ruled that she should get a second chance because of her 13 years of service.
She sued to get her job back, claiming that the city was ignoring her union contract requiring it to arbitrate her case.
But in a decision dated last week, U.S. Appeals Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson ruled that Johnson’s suit was premature and that she should have taken her case to a city board before filing a federal lawsuit.
At trial, Johnson claimed that she was being unfairly blamed for systemic problems at the youth center. The three kids who slipped out on her watch went through a hole in a fence that had been cut six months earlier — by seven other teens who escaped.
A lower judge dismissed Johnson’s claim but wrote that “conditions at the Oak Hill facility seem to have been ripe for escapes.”
There were no lights behind the gym, the surveillance cameras weren’t working, the side door to the gym where the kids escaped wasn’t locked, the security car wasn’t patrolling the area and the security guard behind the gym wasn’t there, Johnson claimed in her lawsuit.
Last week’s appellate decision also showed that Johnson struggled to get help from her union. Union representatives didn’t return calls, and she was given conflicting advice and information, Henderson wrote in the 15-page decision.
Johnson’s lawyer, Mattie Johnson, told The Examiner she was weighing her next steps. Sallie Johnson could petition for a rehearing or try to get the city to arbitrate the case, her lawyer said.
“I haven’t decided whether this dog is dead or still hunting,” she said.
Sallie Johnson was fired from Oak Hill Youth Center after three juvenile offenders snuck away in November 2001. A city judge, however, ruled that she should get a second chance because of her 13 years of service.
She sued to get her job back, claiming that the city was ignoring her union contract requiring it to arbitrate her case.
But in a decision dated last week, U.S. Appeals Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson ruled that Johnson’s suit was premature and that she should have taken her case to a city board before filing a federal lawsuit.
At trial, Johnson claimed that she was being unfairly blamed for systemic problems at the youth center. The three kids who slipped out on her watch went through a hole in a fence that had been cut six months earlier — by seven other teens who escaped.
A lower judge dismissed Johnson’s claim but wrote that “conditions at the Oak Hill facility seem to have been ripe for escapes.”
There were no lights behind the gym, the surveillance cameras weren’t working, the side door to the gym where the kids escaped wasn’t locked, the security car wasn’t patrolling the area and the security guard behind the gym wasn’t there, Johnson claimed in her lawsuit.
Last week’s appellate decision also showed that Johnson struggled to get help from her union. Union representatives didn’t return calls, and she was given conflicting advice and information, Henderson wrote in the 15-page decision.
Johnson’s lawyer, Mattie Johnson, told The Examiner she was weighing her next steps. Sallie Johnson could petition for a rehearing or try to get the city to arbitrate the case, her lawyer said.
“I haven’t decided whether this dog is dead or still hunting,” she said.
