by Bob Walsh
There seems to be little doubt
that a peace officer can and should lose his pension for felony bad
behavior in the course of his official duties. The question here is
should he lose his pension for off-duty conduct?
The
piece of shit in question is Johnnie Swaim, 56. He stopped working for
the CHP in 2011 and has been a guest of the state for some time for
(among other allegations) compelling-coercing his daughters to orally
copulate him beginning when they were between about five to ten years
old. He was convicted of four felonies relating to this in 2013 in
Imperial County. He appealed, protesting his innocence all the while.
An
appeals court did drop some of the charges but did not reduce his
sentence and upheld other charges. He was released from state custody
in 2020.
Last year
CalPERS reduced his pension by a huge amount due to the felony
convictions. An ALJ has decided in Swaim's favor and the CalPERS board
of administration is due to accept or not accept that recommendation
pretty much any day now.
Swaim
filed for retirement in 2015 based on his employment from 1988 thru
2011. He was receiving as much as $8,250 a month. An ethics complaint
made in the matter caused CalPERS to re-evaluate his pension.
A
female niece and a female cousin have both made similar allegations
against Swaim, though those incidents allegedly occurred before his
employment as a peace officer. He was tried and acquitted of those
charges.
I am unsure how I
feel about this. It is very sleazy but the offenses for which he was
convicted were not in any way related to his job performance so, if I
were in a position to have a say, I would vote to let him have his full
pension based on his years of service.
2 comments:
How much of his pension did OJ Simpson lose? Historically, loss of public pension has been filed if the bad conduct was related to the job. There is no doubt that the guy is a nasty dirt bag, but he earned his pension.
The board voted to reinstate his full pension rights.
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