An arbitrator’s report explains why Sgt. Jason Daniels’ firing was overturned but raises new questions
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office internal affairs investigation that led to the firing of Sgt. Jason Daniels as he faced sexual assault allegations in 2014 was incomplete and unfair, according to the arbitrator’s ruling that overturned Daniels’ firing and reinstated his employment. The Journal reported last year (“Policing our Own,” June 10, 2021) that Daniels had been ordered reinstated by an arbitrator and was filling one of the sheriff’s office’s 17 sergeant positions “on paper,” though he was not serving as an active sworn peace officer or currently on the payroll. But exactly what happened to Daniels — who was criminally charged with committing two counts of sexual assault on duty and linked to a racist and sexually explicit text messaging scandal — remained unclear. The ruling of arbitrator Bonnie Prouty Castrey in the case — ordered released to the Journal by Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning on March 21 after the paper challenged the county’s refusal to release it and other documents related to Daniels’ employment — shines new light on the case but also raises scores of new questions. The arbitrator’s ruling largely eviscerated the county’s employment case against Daniels, ordering that he be immediately reinstated to his position, reducing his firing to a two-weeks suspension already served and ordering he be given full back pay with the maximum amount of interest allowable by the law. “I find that there was not a full, fair investigation,” Castrey wrote. “Furthermore, the discipline is far too harsh for the policy violations actually committed by an employee with an otherwise good record.” Daniels was arrested Oct. 19, 2013, by Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office investigators after a woman alleged he’d sexually assaulted her while he was on patrol Aug. 29, 2013. A second woman then came forward to allege Daniels had similarly sexually assaulted her while on duty six months earlier. Daniels was acquitted of the charges in 2016, and subsequent court filings revealed that a search warrant served on Daniels’ cell phone had found some 700 inappropriate text messages, many shared among co-workers and subordinates at the sheriff’s office, that a judge had ruled inadmissible at trial. The texts — which have only been summarized and have never been fully made public — reportedly included terms ranging from the sexually crass (boobies, boner, vag) and sexist (bitch, cunt, slut, whore) to the racist (nigger, dot head) and homophobic…