For the Los Angeles County Fire Department, that’s a clear red line. Firefighters cannot assault their neighbors.
As a result, the department fired longtime Santa Clarita fire chief Adam Clint.
“You have engaged in conduct that disproportionately protecting the fire chief after assaulting your neighbor and being convicted of a felony,” fire chief Thomas Ewald wrote in his January 2023 fire letter. “Your misconduct made me embarrassed and trusted the department.”
However, the fire department may have to get Clint back soon.
In February, the LA County Public Servant Committee unanimously revived Clint, 51, and awarded a refund of more than two years.
The commissioner discovered that there was no sufficient evidence to support the charges Clint called his neighbor. They also found Clint was emphasized by his “aggressive” attitude and the “threatening” words of neighbor Robert Pope.
“His misconduct on July 3, 2021 was the lapse of an isolated, non-characteristic sentence that is unlikely to be repeated,” the committee hearing officer wrote in his report, recommending that Clint’s penalty be downgraded for a 30-day suspension.
The fire department is suing the decision, filing a petition in LA County Superior Court on April 14, saying it was “within departmental discretion” to fire Clint. It is unclear where Clint will be assigned if he returns to the department, including benefits, which is the year of the attack.
Clint’s lawyer, Steve Haney, said his client feels deep regret for hitting the Pope, but he denied pointing at a gun or calling him a racial slur. The judge reduced Clint’s felony assault conviction to a misdemeanor and was later deleted from his record.
“Man has no racist bones in his body,” Haney said. Haney wondered why the county was spending money on outside lawyers to keep Clint out of work. “That’s an incredible waste of taxpayer money.”
Over the past four years, the Civil Service Commission has forced dozens of workers they tried to fire, including sheriff’s deputies, probation staff and social workers, to sacrifice millions of backpays in the county, records show.
Of approximately 65 employees, the committee has moved to recover since 2021, according to a review of the committee’s minutes and annual report.
The committee is made up of five members, each appointed by an LA County supervisor, serving $150 for the meeting.
The city of Los Angeles has a similar committee and a panel of Rights Committees for Police Officers’ Discipline. The union representing the rank and file Los Angeles Police Department officers has managed to allow more civilians on the rights committee panel after investigating how civilians are routinely more generous to problematic officers than their fellow police officers.
John Donner, chairman of the county civil servants committee, said he and his colleagues usually agree to the department’s disciplinary decision. He characterized the relationship between the county and the committee as “pretty citizens.” In 2023, the committee supported roughly three of the four disciplinary decisions.
After Jim McDonnell became sheriff in 2014, he began sue to challenge the reinstatement of committee deputies fired for lying, saying he didn’t know where to assign unreliable aides to testify in court.
Sheriff Robert Luna since 2022 has not filed a petition challenging the committee’s decision on his deputy, court records show.
Probation Chief Guiller Moviera Rosa fought in court to overturn the decisions of the two committees.
One involved an employee who bought a lobster lunch for a minor who was not in Caseload in 2021 and repeatedly visited gang members who were jailed without approval. The judge ordered the committee to reconsider the decision in April. In other cases ongoing, the aide was fired in 2019 after video footage showed he lied about beating him.
In 2022, the committee revived the chief of Probation Bureau Helen Carter. He was fired for lying to his colleagues about being a psychiatrist, Coroner, professional bass fisherman, trauma surgeon, Olympic swimmer, Olympic swimmer, acrobatic pilot and an army veterinarian who lost 70% of his hearing in an Afgha bomb. The committee found that the decision to fire her was based on “false and unreliable allegations.”
The probation department urged her to stop her recovery, saying she was “devast and blame” and that her actions were “severe and persistent (not quirky).” The division lost.
Carter did not respond to the email. When she returned to the county in 2024, she raised over $500,000 in Backpay, according to pay records.
The neighborhood quickly swirled out of control.
On July 3, 2021, the Pope’s wife called him and said that Clint had accused her of speeding up at Santa Clarita Caldesac.
The Pope says he stopped by Clint’s house and the two get caught up in a fierce debate at the doorway, yelling that the captain pointed his gun at him and shouted, “I’ll get an F from my property.”
According to the Pope, Clint entered his house and reappeared with a gun. When the Pope retreated into his car, his two 14-year-old stepdaughters were waiting, so Clint knocked him out of the back and left him on the ground until he regained consciousness, the Pope said. He later said he discovered a bruise with footprints on his back.
Clint initially denied the sheriff’s deputies that he had attacked the Pope, but later admitted that he punched him into his head.
After making a statement to his agent that morning, the Pope arrived at his sister’s funeral. There, he was supposed to be disabled, just as everyone had left.
Tensions between Clint and the Pope’s family have worsened. In 2022, Clint sued the Pope, his wife, Rosanna Avetian, and La County, claiming that sheriff’s deputies and firefighters were biased in Pope’s favor based on “his African-American ancestors.” Clint also argued in the lawsuit that he was “evidently for his white race” and that he was not given the due process. The case was dismissed.
The Pope sued the battery a year later. The case is ongoing.
The Pope and his wife said that the family had trouble moving on from that day and were reluctant to leave, so they didn’t have to meet Clint on a walk of their dog. They ultimately decided to leave.
“I don’t understand how he got his job back,” the Pope said. “That’s just amazing.”
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