Sergeant Fired

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Inside Barber Jon's in Folsom, apprentice Aaron Ralls learns a trade he never thought he'd be doing. Ralls is without a job because, he said, he tried to save a life inside California State Prison, Sacramento. "Two years ago, I thought I would have been a lieutenant by now," Ralls said. In April 2007, Ralls, then a six-year correction sergeant, was responding to an inmate attempting to swallow an unknown object. "I grabbed him around his lower jaw area to keep in from swallowing up what ever he was trying to swallow. For seven seconds. After that, I let him go," he said. According to state records, Ralls was fired for using "excessive force on an inmate," "failing to document his use of force in hisincident report," and attempting to "conceal his own improper actions" by telling officers to change their incident reports. "It angers me -- none of that happened at all," Ralls said. Ralls admits only to correcting an officer's wording, but not changing witness accounts. "Yes, I did correct some reports, but that was my job as a sergeant. We review every report ... countless grammatical errors andsentence structures that didn't make since," he said. In June, a judge with the California Personnel Board heard Ralls' case and came to the conclusion Ralls was guilty of "inexcusable neglect of duty," "dishonesty," and "failure of good behavior." But that same judge overturned the state's decision to fire him and said Ralls' conduct warrants a demotion to "position of correctional officer" -- but not firing. Five months later, after two appeals, he's still not allowed back to work. "I have no idea why I have not been back to work, why I have not been given my back pay," he said. Despite some apprehension about returning to the same job site, Ralls is pressing forward. He's taking his case to Superior Court to get his job back. A hearing is set for Thursday afternoon. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not give an interview on the matter, simply responding that "personnel matters are confidential and are protected from disclosure."