I guess he just wanted a change of scenery.
From The New York Post:
A city sheriff claimed he couldn't work and called in sick to his job for nine months -- but moonlighted the whole time at two Queens strip clubs providing security, The Post has learned.
Sgt. Jefferson Rodriguez has just been canned following a ruling against him by the city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearing.
The city Department of Finance -- which oversees city sheriffs -- allowed Rodriguez to take off work October 2008 through June 2009 and still collect his $83,241 salary so he could recover from a car accident he had while on the job.
Rodriguez provided the necessary medical notices to take the leave, said Finance spokesman Owen Stone.
But Rodriguez, a 47-year-old Bayside, Queens, resident, showed up as an armed security guard at two strip joints -- Perfection and Cityscape -- where his private security firm, Apollo Security, had landed contracts, one for $1,500, court papers say.
The city fired him last month, and his legal appeal was tossed, although Rodriguez claims that he was not working while on medical leave and that he was actually fired as retaliation for joining a federal employment discrimination lawsuit that the city settled for $500,000 in 2008.
"We made hundreds of arrests for this city with not one complaint being lodged against me. My only problem was that I dared to file a lawsuit against the department," Rodriguez told The Post.
His attorney, Kerry Katsorhis, insisted Rodriguez frequented the clubs for pleasure, not work.
"Sergeant Rodriguez liked to attend adult-entertainment establishments for whatever reason only known to him," the lawyer said.
Katsorhis said he was armed because, as a deputy sheriff, he carried his weapon "24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Stone said Rodriguez was not allowed to have his city gun while on another job.
Rodriguez was busted after city officials got an anonymous tip about his outside income, for which he had not obtained permission from the agency, court papers allege.
Full story
Via New York Post
The Last Tradition
No comments:
Post a Comment