NHP worker wins battle, loses his job

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A mechanic for the Nevada Highway Patrol who successfully challenged his suspension for using swear words in the workplace has been fired for other reasons.

The state attorney general's office said Wednesday that Dewey Willie has been dismissed on allegations of illegal activity. Willie has appealed his firing and has also filed a claim that he was singled out because he was a whistleblower.

The attorney general's office said it could not release details of the firing because it was a personnel matter.

Willie, however, said he was dismissed Nov. 7 on a charge that he misappropriated tires from the Highway Patrol to give to a civilian. He said his former superior told him to order the tires and he didn't know they were to be given to a friend of his superior.

Willie also said he was dismissed because he reported that one of his ex-superiors turned over 57 Highway Patrol cars to the Storey County Sheriff's Office. He said the correct procedure would have been to auction them off and they would have netted the state about $400,000.

He said he made the complaint to the attorney general's office but that no action has been taken.

The firing came before the hearing officer issued his decision on the swear word complaint.

The Highway Patrol in July 2002 imposed a five-day suspension on Willie for using profanity during a confrontation with two female employees of the state Department of Public Safety. He said "b.s." in one conversation but never the full words. In another face-off, Willie used an obscenity.

State Hearing Officer Henry Egghart, in a decision released Tuesday, said the use of those words were common in the Nevada Highway Patrol and ranged clear up to the higher echelon. A five-day suspension for using those swear words was "arbitrary and disproportionate and would not serve the good of the public service," Egghart said.

Egghart ordered the Highway Patrol to reduce the punishment to a written reprimand.

Willie, an American Indian, said Wednesday he also has a suit in federal court against the state claiming harassment and racial discrimination, and he is awaiting permission to sue from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he said.