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An arbitrator ruled yesterday that the Oregon Department of Justice erred last year when it fired one of its criminal investigators for allegedly racially profiling DOJ's director of civil rights, who is black. The arbitrator found that the firing "appears to have been both inappropriate, unnecessary and clearly excessive."
The agency terminated Jim Williams one year ago after determining he'd used a surveillance tool to track the social media activity of DOJ's top civil rights lawyer, Erious Johnson, Jr.
The agency said Williams had violated laws prohibiting surveillance of a person for political purposes.
The case drew widespread attention because of tensions around the Black Lives Matter movement and because of the appearance that DOJ was racially profiling one of its few black employees at a time when Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum was leading a task force on racial profiling.
The trouble began on Sept. 30, 2015, when Williams used an online surveillance tool called "Digital Stakeout" to search social media accounts in Salem for the use of hashtags #blacklivesmatter and #fuckthepolice. When he saw that Johnson had those hashtags in his twitter feed, Williams alerted a supervisor.
Williams was ordered to document his findings in a memo.
The arbitrator's decision says Williams was reluctant to do so because "he feared such a memo could get him in trouble."
But Williams wrote the report, which included print-outs of Johnson's retweeting political cartoons and images from albums of the musical group Public Enemy, which Williams flagged as potentially threatening to law enforcement officers.
Williams' memo got passed up the chain of command to Attorney General Rosenblum and her top deputy, Fred Boss, both of whom reviewed it at a meeting on Oct. 20, 2015. Rosenblum said at that meeting, according to the arbitrator's ruling, that by searching Johnson's social media account, Williams had "engaged in racial profiling." (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to Richard Meeker, the co-owner of WW's parent company.)
On Nov. 10, 2015, Rosenblum placed Williams on leave and hired an outside lawyer, Carolyn Walker of the Stoel Rives firm, to conduct an independent investigation. Walker determined that among other things, Williams and his colleagues had mistaken Johnson's retweet of the logo of the musical group Public Enemy—a man in the cross-hairs of a gun—as potential a threat against police.
Following that investigation, Rosenblum fired Williams on Aug. 16, 2016.
Williams then contested that decision at an arbitration hearing in May of this year.
The decision handed down by Arbitrator David Blair on Aug. 23 finds that DOJ never provided Williams with proper training on Digital Stakeout or proper guidance on what to do with what he found.
"It is very disconcerting that the department introduced a new technological tool into the mix without any policies and procedures first being in place," Blair wrote.
Blair also sharply criticized Rosenblum and her team for how they responded to the report Williams was ordered to write.
"Much more alarming to the arbitrator is the self-inflicted wounds [DOJ] caused when (1) it ordered [Williams] to capture the images which are the subject of this grievance, (2) shared preliminary personnel information directly with Johnson, (3) shared preliminary personnel information with prospective campaign donors, and (4) shared preliminary personnel information with the media," Blair wrote. "It is of no surprise that the Employer set in motion a series of events that could have no other outcome than to deliver severe punishment for the declared perpetrator."
Blair found that DOJ failed to show Williams' firing was appropriate.
"[DOJ] exacted the harshest penalty possible against a seven-year veteran of the department with a spotless record," Blair wrote.
In his ruling, Blair granted Williams his job back with full back pay and benefits and ordered that his record of discipline for the incident be cleared.
For his part, Erious Johnson sued DOJ over its handling of the matter. That lawsuit is pending.
Update, 12:50 pm:
Rosenblum stood by her decision to try to fire Williams.
"I am disappointed in the arbitrator's decision and continue to feel strongly that I made the right decision to terminate Mr. Williams' employment as a criminal investigator at the Oregon Department of Justice," she says in a statement. "We followed all of the rules outlined in Mr. Williams' employment contract, but knew that an arbitrator could rescind my decision–which is what happened today. Since there is still pending civil litigation involving this matter, we are not able to comment further."