Lawsuit alleges DOC retaliation

PALMER — After what his lawsuit describes as an “unprecedented” pepper-spraying incident, a Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility corrections officer has filed a lawsuit the state, alleging a pattern of retaliation for his union activities.

Randall McLellan is president of the Alaska Correctional Officers Association, a union representing the state’s 900 corrections officers that he helped form in 2004. He’s been with the Department of Corrections since 1997.

The lawsuit alleges that the retaliation began with a 2008 vote of no confidence in DOC Commissioner Joe Schmidt that the union approved by a 514 to 19 margin. After that, every little mistake McLellan made — not saying good morning, forgetting to pick up inmate mail — provoked either a write-up or much harsher disciplinary action than was typical.

“It is a repeated joke among staff at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility that you should not stand too close to McLellan because he has a target on his back and they might miss and hit you,” says the 13-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday.

For its part, DOC has not commented on the allegations.

“No response at this time,” department spokesman Richard Schmitz wrote in an email Thursday. “The commissioner and director have not yet been served with the suit so comment is way premature.”

In April 2008, McLellan was asked to go on television to talk about an outbreak of medically resistant staph infections in the prison system. He said he was concerned about a lack of clean clothes and linen for prisoners of Mat-Su Pre-Trial. After that, Schmidt went on then-talk-show-host Eddie Burke’s program and rebutted McLellan.

“Schmidt faulted McLellan as the one responsible for the problem and he characterized him as a union member who was spreading hate and fear through false statements about a clothing shortage that didn’t exist,” the lawsuit states.

On March 2, 2013, the lawsuit alleges the matter came to a head. Alaska State Troopers brought a man with a history of assaulting police officers to the jail after he’d beaten his own father. Troopers and corrections officers had to fight the guy into a cell.

At the end of the struggle, McLellan pepper-sprayed the man to get him to let officers shut the cell door.

In tight quarters, the pepper spray also affected the officers nearby. One of them vomited from the exposure.

McLellan was eventually disciplined for that. But while disciplinary procedures are usually prompt, occurring days after an incident, in this case, the lawsuit alleges McLellan wasn’t disciplined until April 24.

Why the delay? The lawsuit alleges that four days before the discipline came down, on April 20, an arbitrator made a ruling in a union case against DOC. It was a big case, slapping down the department’s attempts to unilaterally do away with week on/week off schedules for some officers.

“The actions taken against McLellan in response to the March 2 incident were motivated by the defendants’ dissatisfaction with the adverse arbitration ruling and undertaken in retaliation against McLellan,” the lawsuit alleges.

McLellan was busted from sergeant down to correctional officer. He and the shift of officers he worked with were ordered into retraining. Here’s where the pepper spray comes in. Pepper spraying an officer is usually a routine part of training. It helps an officer understand the pain he is inflicting on a person and the affects it has.

In that retraining, McLellan and his shift were ordered to be pepper sprayed again.

“It is unprecedented to subject an officer to a second pepper spraying as part of any refresher training,” the lawsuit alleges.

A DOC spokeswoman in other media reports declined to comment on the allegations, but also told a reporter that she could not say if anyone had ever been sprayed twice for training. In fact, the lawsuit alleges, at first the officers were told just to attend the pepper-spraying class, but the department then ordered them to the full multi-day training session.

“McLellan and his shift members were told to attend the class, but unlike the other participants, they were not given pencils, were not permitted to take notes and were not given the written test,” the lawsuit states.

Among the materials that McLellan and his lawyers released upon going public with the lawsuit is a statement McLellan and his shift members read the day they got sprayed.

“I am here as directed, and will follow those orders to attend this class. Even though I am going to follow the directives given me, I believe this directive to be pepper sprayed is unreasonable and unlawful. I have not volunteered or consented to this activity and I am being forced to participate against my will and to preserve my livelihood,” the statement reads.

The lawsuit seeks more than $100,000 damages as well as attorneys fees.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.