Jurors reject Stanislaus deputy's claim

Jurors on Friday rejected a deputy sheriff's claim that Stanislaus County violated the law by sending him home for two years without pay after he suffered on-the-job injuries.

County administrators were right to respect a doctor's work restrictions and to offer Dennis Wallace lesser-paying positions, which he turned down, some jurors said.

Wallace and his attorney said their case was weakened by a judge's decision not to allow testimony about the Sheriff's Department's "limp, lame and lazy" list of injured employees.

The county's attorney painted Wallace as two-faced because he insisted to the county he was fit enough to work, while accepting workers compensation benefits for injuries. He had gained expertise as a workers compensation adjuster at a previous winery job and filed 15 claims in 16 years working for the county.

"It looks like he's played the workers compensation system, he's played the county and now he's trying to play you," attorney Morin Jacob told jurors.

After more than two weeks of trial testimony, the jury of nine women and three men spent about two hours deliberating.

After the verdict, juror Nancy Villarreal said the panel thought Wallace had gamed the system "to a degree."

She worked 27 years for another county department and probably would not have been moved by "limp, lame and lazy" testimony, she said. "It's not necessarily what you feel, but (such things are said) to break the tension of a hard job," Villarreal said.

The pejorative phrase was exposed in Wallace's first trial, which was not resolved when at least nine jurors could not agree on a verdict in August. Judge Hurl Johnson's decision to keep the phrase out of the second trial prevented Wallace from demonstrating the department's culture of devaluing employees, said his attorney, Steve Murphy.

Reinstated in January

Although other doctors had cleared Wallace from neck, knee, ankle and shoulder injuries, administrators were right to rely on the doctor who sent Wallace home in January 2011 because that injury was the most recent at the time, juror Robert Harris said.

Another doctor eventually said Wallace could work, and he was reinstated in January. He had hoped to gain nearly a half-million dollars in lost wages and benefits, and damages for emotional distress.

The county wanted to teach him a lesson and never would have brought him back if he hadn't sued, Murphy told jurors.

Assistant County Counsel Ed Burroughs said, "The county considers our employees as very valuable assets, and when we do have an injured employee, we do fully comply with the law."

The county faces other lawsuits from two former deputies who say they were dismissed after being injured.

Other cases brought by current and former Sheriff's Department employees in recent years have had mixed results.

The county paid $545,000 in 2009 to settle a lawsuit brought by four women who said they were punished for raising claims of discrimination, and paid $42,500 in 2011 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former deputy.

In 2010, Jacob successfully defended the county against another sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former sheriff's clerk Lydia Lopez. Jacob was hired for the second Wallace trial after another attorney handled the first.

Witnesses at the second trial included Sheriff Adam Christianson, Undersheriff Mick Hardenbrook, former Sheriff Les Weidman and former Undersheriff Bill Heyne.

Wallace said he hopes other employees will be treated better because he stood up for his rights, but he said he was disappointed at being subjected to character assassination. After the verdict, he said he hopes to continue as a patrol deputy because "I love and enjoy serving."

"I can live with the loss," he added. "The disheartening part is today, a bully got stronger."

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or (209) 578-2390.

This story was originally published May 31, 2013 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Jurors reject Stanislaus deputy's claim."