The case centers on Officer Nathaniel Partridge, who on Sept. 17, 2017, turned in his patrol vehicle almost four hours before his shift was scheduled to end and drove the 35 miles home — then collected overtime pay for hours he never worked. Court records show it wasn’t an isolated incident; Partridge did the same thing on at least two other occasions.

He was far from the only one. Investigators later determined that dozens of officers assigned to CHP’s East Los Angeles station had adopted similar habits while working overtime traffic control shifts tied to highway construction projects. Although the agency had officially barred the practice five years earlier, it went unchecked until a 2019 internal audit blew the whistle.

“I took the chance to go home and would fall on the consequence if I was called back,” Partridge later told investigators, according to court filings.

The fallout from that audit was significant: the East LA station, despite being one of the smallest patrol divisions in Southern California, had racked up overtime costs triple those of the region’s largest division. In response, CHP leadership moved in 2020 to fire dozens of officers connected to the scheme, Partridge among them.

Six years later, after the case wound through the State Personnel Board, a Justice Department criminal probe and the trial courts, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal this week upheld a decision that a one-year unpaid suspension — not termination — was the appropriate punishment for Partridge, rejecting CHP’s push to have him permanently removed from the force.

Partridge’s attorney, David Mastagni, said the ruling affirms a fair outcome.

“Accountability and second chances are not in conflict,” Mastagni said.

The underlying facts were never in dispute. Investigators found Partridge was paid $288.98 for three hours and 45 minutes of overtime he did not actually work, part of what authorities described as a broader pattern of falsified overtime claims at the East LA station. He and numerous colleagues were fired in 2020 as a result.

The scandal drew the attention of the state Attorney General’s Office, and in February 2022, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced 302 criminal charges against 54 CHP officers, accusing them of collectively defrauding taxpayers of more than $200,000.

Those charges, however, didn’t stick for long. By December 2022, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had offered the accused officers a deal: charges would be downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors, then dropped entirely, if they repaid the money owed. Fifty-two of the 54 officers accepted the arrangement.

When CHP fired Partridge, the agency characterized his conduct as “inexcusable neglect of duty, dishonesty [and] misuse of state property.” Partridge appealed, and the State Personnel Board — while agreeing his actions amounted to “self-enrichment at the expense of the public’s trust” — opted for a one-year suspension rather than dismissal.

CHP pushed back, arguing the punishment was too lenient and asking a district court judge to overturn the board’s decision and reinstate the termination, contending the board had abused its discretion. The judge disagreed and upheld the suspension.

Court records paint a mixed picture of Partridge’s tenure: supervisors praised his performance and recommended him for promotion, and he had no prior disciplinary history. Still, CHP leadership maintained that his actions in the overtime scheme undermined the integrity expected of an officer.

This week, the appellate court sided with the lower court, concluding the State Personnel Board acted within its authority in choosing suspension over termination.

“A reasonable decisionmaker could have dismissed Partridge, and a reasonable decisionmaker could have — and did — impose a one-year suspension without pay,” the court wrote in its ruling.

Original source: CalMatters

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