Two jailers also fired for passing notes among inmates
Among those who were dismissed from the sheriff’s ranks in the midst of the agency’s staffing crisis was Adam “Scott” Gaither, a 40-year-old captain who had first joined the sheriff’s office on August 1, 2008. Gaither’s stint with the sheriff ultimately ended on July 17, 2023 due to discrepancies in his timecard that triggered an internal investigation shortly before his dismissal.
Among the documents that the newspaper received from the county’s personnel office is a formal report dated July 17, 2023 that sums up the results of this departmental inquiry. In this communique, Randy Denham, an administrator with the sheriff’s office, recalls that sheriff Terry Johnson had personally contacted him on June 26, 2023 to investigate some apparent discrepancies in Gaither’s timecard. Denham adds that his subsequent probe revealed that Gaither had credited himself with 8 hour shifts on several days when he was scheduled to be off from work.
“During my interview with Captain Gaither,” Denham goes on to recount, “he acknowledged the fact that he had taken several days off and claimed 8 hours in Kronos [the county’s computerized scheduling system] for each of those days.
In the end, Denham identified nine days when Gaither was scheduled to be off but had nevertheless entered 8 hours of work time in Kronos. Denham concluded that these discrepancies amounted to a “Category A” violation of the sheriff’s personnel policy – which carry potential punishments ranging from a three-day suspension to termination. In this case, Denham decided that Gaither should be “immediately terminated.”
According to the county’s personnel office, Gaither had an annual salary of $107,204.30 at the time of his departure.
About ‘time’
Attempts to game Kronos also ended the careers of two employees at the county’s detention center.
According to the county’s personnel office, 33-year-old detention officer Felixia Gray was involuntarily dismissed on May 14, 2024 after a two-year stint at the jail that had begun on April 4, 2022. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Miguel Chong, who had joined the jail’s staff on March 27, 2023, was dismissed on March 21, 2024, while still in his probationary period.
Both Chong and Gray ultimately received dismissal letters from lieutenant Matthew Walker that spelled out the various timecard violations that led to their terminations.
In Chong’s case, Walker reminded the junior detention officer that he had used up all of his vacation time when he nevertheless scheduled himself for a two day break on March 25 and March 26 of this year. Walker goes on to observe that Chong “did not report or call in for duty” on either of those days.
Meanwhile, Gray seems to have had an even more complicated relationship with the sheriff’s scheduling software. According to Walker’s dismissal letter, she tried to schedule a two-day holiday in April only to learn that those same two days had already been claimed by the maximum number of jailers that the sheriff could spare; Gray nevertheless called in on each of those dates to tell her supervisor that she was “having a mental health day.”
Walker added that a subsequent review of Gray’s absences in Kronos revealed their curious correlation with approved days off for one of her fellow detention officers.
“It is a clear pattern…that officer Felixia Gray has come in late or called out when officer Alberta Hamn is off or sick,” he observed in Gray’s separation letter.
Walker eventually concluded his reviews of both Gray and Chong with the determination that these two detention officers had been systematically feigning illness or absent without leave. In each case, the violation amounted to “Category A” offense that led to Gray’s termination and Chong’s departure at the end of his probationary period. According to the county’s personnel office Gray’s salary at the time of her termination was $54,812.74 a year while Chong’s annual pay came out to $56,510.56.
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Sacking the messengers
An entirely different sort of professional lapse appears to have doomed the continued employment prospects of two other detention officers.
According to the county’s personnel office, 46-year-old Shannon Martin had been with the county since December 20, 2021, while 31-year-old Tyshawn Adams had joined the jail’s staff on March 14, 2022. Both officers were shown the proverbial door on February 27, 2024 after they were allegedly caught passing written messages between inmates under their charge.
On February 26, both Martin and Adams received separation letters from lieutenant Andrew Boggs, who had been asked to investigate their alleged improprieties. In each letter, Boggs states that he “was able to locate several notes” that the two officers had passed between inmates. The inmates reportedly gave up Adams and Martin as the couriers for these unauthorized scribblings. According to Boggs, the two detention officers were given polygraphs and asked about their alleged roles as the go-betweens for these inmates. The results apparently showed they were being deceptive.
Boggs consequently found the pair to have violated personnel policies on truthfulness and satisfactory job performance. Both were found to have committed Category A offenses and recommended for dismissal.
According to the county’s personnel office, Adams was making $56,815.08 a year before he was fired, while Martin had an annual salary of $51,221.31.
The final casualty that the county’s personnel office has reported for the sheriff’s department was Samantha Gonzalez-Ugalde.
A 21-year-old detention officer who joined the county’s payroll on August 7, 2023, Gonzalez was apparently still in training as a cadet when she was let go on December 13 of the same year. According to records provided by the personnel office, she had failed too many of her tests to move on in the program. Her salary at the time of her dismissal was $47,240 a year.
See other stories on dismissals:
Background/overview (Part 1): 37 employees were fired from various county government departments over the past 14 months:
Social Services (Part 3): 13 fired, including: “time clock” violations, or just not coming back from lunch; one who made up college educational credentials on her application; plus two who literally “fell asleep on the job”: https://alamancenews.com/part-3-social-services-time-clock-violations-again-exaggerated-resume-and-falling-asleep-on-the-job/
EMS (Part 4): 7 fired, most because they didn’t complete required training: https://alamancenews.com/part-4-ems-personnel-fired-for-not-completing-mandatory-training/
Misc. (Part 5): 11 fired, including two previously-reported employees of the county’s tax office, who changed the tax values on their own properties: https://alamancenews.com/part-5-misc-departments-11-fired-including-tax-office-employees-who-changed-the-values-on-their-own-properties/
