The arbitrator ruled that she should keep her job, with a 30-day suspension. Vanderwalker, who was fired for pepper-spraying two women and kicking another woman during the WTO riots, got his job back Wednesday after the case went to another arbitrator. While these cases can outrage a boss and frustrate the public, experts say such outcomes are common. They are settled quietly, behind closed doors, by mostly unknown lawyers serving as arbitrators. The accused and their attorneys fight firings as fiercely as defense lawyers trying to save their clients from the gallows.
Losers often go away frustrated, with nowhere else to turn.
And arbitrators typically give great scrutiny to termination cases, especially if it's a veteran employee. Reichert has been blasting arbitrator Michael de Grasse, a longtime labor lawyer in Walla Walla, whose binding decision returned Vanderwalker to the force, with back pay. There is no appeal. De Grasse rejected the sheriff's claims that actions by Vanderwalker, a 19-year veteran, during WTO warranted his firing. And he found that the deputy had not lied when he said he didn't clearly remember kicking a woman who was in the street.