Top cops back on job in troubled city of Pacific
Apr 5, 2013, 2:49 PM | Updated: 4:17 pm
Two cops were reinstated Friday by the Pacific's Civil Service Commission after Mayor Cy Sun placed the duo on paid leave for "their own protection," in March. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
Lt. Edwin Massey with the Pacific Police Department said he put his uniform on as fast as he could.
“My wife drove me to the police station and I was ready to work,” he said, two weeks after he and Police Chief John Caulkins were inexplicably placed on paid administrative leave by embattled Mayor Cy Sun.
The two were reinstated Friday by the city’s Civil Service Commission, but Lt. Massey said the 83-year-old Sun is not happy they’re back to work.
“My firearm is locked up in my office and I don’t have the keys to my office or the keys to my car or the keys to the station,” he said. “I walked across the street and I asked the mayor for my keys and he refused to give them to me.”
Sun placed the duo on paid leave for “their own protection,” he said back in March, but declined to elaborate further. Earlier this week, Sun brought in a controversial former police chief to replace Caulkins.
Former University of California-Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza accepted the job of interim public safety director Wednesday, only to change her mind on Friday.
“The issues at the City of Pacific are deep seeded,” she said in a statement to KING-5. “As a result, it has prevented my appointment and assistance to the Police Department. I wish the City of Pacific and its citizens all the best.”
Spicuzza left her post at UC Davis after a controversial incident involving the use of pepper spray against students engaged in peaceful protest.
Sun is the subject of a recall effort being considered by the Washington State Supreme Court.
