THE JUDGE DOES NOT LIKE MY SUN GLASSES

THE FIRST DAY OF TESTIMONY IN THE LYDIA LOPEZ TRIAL

Today, I attended the first day of testimony up until the afternoon recess.  Jeff Hubbins, the lead attorney for Lydia Lopez was about 45 minutes late for court due to a jack-knifed trailer on the freeway. Judge Hurl Johnson took the time to give his instructions to the Jury on what was going to happen during the trial. Jurror # 10, the foreman of the jury was excused due to economic hardship, and was replaced by another gentleman named Brent Rasmussen.

Jeff Hubbins arrived, and began his opening statements. He made the point that the jury only has to find that it is more likely than not to decide guilt in a civil trial, and that equal weight can be given to direct and non direct testimony in the trial. The opening statement by Hubbins began with a discussion of Lt. Pooley, who is one of the defendants in this case, who had worked for the SDEA. It was described how Lt. Pooley had placed Lydia Lopez,s hand on his penis, and how it was witnessed by a janitor who had just entered the room where they were. A second incident was described how Lydia had found a Betty Boop doll on her desk with a plastic action hero figure positioned in the “69” position on Betty Boop, and how Lt. Pooley had made some snide remark about the dolls. Another incident was described how Pooley was looking at her legs when Lydia was typing a search warrant, and that she had gone to the bathroom to change into some shorts. When she came back, Lt. Pooley told Lydia that he liked her much better with her shorts off. Jeff Hubbins described how a couple of weeks later, Lydia was transferred out of the SDEA, and put on grave yard shift. Jeff Hubbins described how this caused Lydia distress, and anxiety, and that her Doctor had prescribed Paxill for her, and had written a note that said that Lydia could not work grave yard shift for one month because of medical reasons. The county wanted two more letters from the Doctor, and eventually let her work days, but decreased her job level by two pay levels. Jeff then described how the Doctor had upped the dose of Paxill, and wanted 21 more days of day shift. The county gave her an ultimatum to work grave yard or else, so Lydia showed up. The county instituted an internal affairs investigation on Lydia’s time cards. The county found that Lydia had been cheating on her time card by marking down every day that she worked from 8 AM to 5 PM, when actual hours often differed. Jeff Hubbins told how this practice was common practice amongst other Sherrif’s Dept.  Employees, as well as employees from other county departments. Jeff referred to the practice as “Banking Hours, or Flex Time.” The county found that Lydia had cheated on the time cards, and sent her a “Notice of Termination.” The county had what is called a “Skelly Hearing” The #2 top cop Ray Hine wrote Lydia up, and placed her on a performance improvement plan rather than terminating her at that time. As a result of this meeting, Lydia had to call in whenever she was going to miss work, and personally speak to her boss, and had to sign in and out, and that her time cards had to be verified by her supervisor. Lydia found this to be impossible, because many times her supervisor was not there, since she was working nights. Lydia did not get verification on a couple of these time cards, and was found to be in violation of the terms of her performance improvement plan. Again, the county had a Skelly hearing.  Lydia was transferred out of the office, and was put on rotating shifts of 2 weeks night shift, 2 weeks day shift, and 2 weeks PM shift. Lydia gave up. Lydia is suing Bill Pooley for sexual harassment, and Stanislaus County for harassment, failure to prevent harassment, and for disability discrimination, and for failure to employ the interactive procedure that should have been followed. Lydia is also suing for lost wages

disability. Allegations were made by Loraine Jacob that Lydia had accessed confidential information about gang member friends of her husband.

Jeff Hubbins then put Lydia’s Union Representative on the stand and discussed all the involvement he had in this case. This testimony was very boring, and nit picky to the extreme. I had much to do in the afternoon, and had to leave for the day. I will try to attend as much of this trial as I can. It is expected to last about three weeks.               Tux

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