Fired state worker to get job back

Friday, June 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state worker, fired in Las Vegas after threatening to kill her supervisor and later bringing a loaded gun to work, is going to get her job back.

Nellie J. Marion was ordered reinstated with back pay and benefits to November 1995 as program assistant in the state Department of Occupational Safety and Health by a hearing officer who found there was insufficient evidence to justify her dismissal.

But Hearing Officer John J. Graves said Marion should have a 10-day suspension.

Graves said he rarely changes the disciplinary decisions of state agencies but there were unusual circumstances in this case.

At an appeals hearing earlier this year, three employees of the agency said they heard Marion murmur under her breath on more than one occasion that she would like to kill her supervisor, Jimmie Garrett.

One witness quoted Marion as saying she was going to shoot "that black (expletive) because he was using reverse discrimination."

But none of the employees took the threats seriously and never reported them when they overheard them.

An anonymous letter later sparked an investigation into Marion's behavior. On the day state investigators arrived at the Las Vegas office to look into the matter, Marion had a loaded gun in her purse. She was charged with a gross misdemeanor of carrying a concealed weapon but the charge was later dropped.

Marion said she had purchased the gun after a break-in of her home. And she said she brought the gun to work to pawn it during her lunch hour. She had previously done the same thing twice.

The comments made about killing Garrett had been made months before the gun was discovered in her purse.

The hearing officer said it was inexcusable for Marion to make the comments about killing Garrett, even if she was talking to herself and not others. "These statements, although a form of letting off steam, are inappropriate and should not be exposed at the workplace," Graves wrote in his decision.

Marion testified at the hearing that she had meant to leave the gun in the car and not bring it in the office. Graves said he believes that she "genuinely forgot" the loaded .38-caliber Special Taurus was in her purse.

Garrett testified Marion never threatened him and said they were friends despite some work related disagreements. He said he did not fear Marion.

The hearing officer described Marion as a "genuinely likeable person, church-going and a good worker for the state of Nevada."

"It is difficult to believe that this woman would be a danger to a man who she knows at work and socially as well, having spent time with Mr. Garrett and his wife at their home," Graves wrote.

Graves said the comments by Marion about killing her supervisor were revealed by co-worker Rhonda Macias, who had tangled with Marion on at least one occasion. He said that Macias "was probably motivated by spite" in writing an anonymous letter that detailed the threats, months after the comments were made.