Sangamon County Associate Judge Rudolph Braud has upheld the decision of an arbitrator who ruled that a Springfield police officer who tested positive for steroids cannot be fired.
Loren Pettit, who was fired in 2014 after testing positive for clenbuterol, an asthma medication banned in the U.S. that is used as an illegal performance enhancer by athletes, and nandrolone, an anablolic steroid. Internal affairs investigators who searched Pettit’s squad car also found human chorionic gonadotropin, commonly called HCG, which is a diet aid that is sometimes used by steroid users to boost testosterone levels.
Of the three substances, only nandrolone appeared on the list of banned substances in the police union’s collective bargaining agreement with the city, which sought Pettit’s dismissal based him testing positive for nandrolone, not the other substances. But arbitrator Doyle O’Connor in January of last year overturned Pettit’s firing and said that the officer should be punished with a 15-day suspension (“Cops on drugs? No problem,” May 7, 2015).
In a ruling signed Thursday, Braud upheld O’Connor’s decision, saying that it “does not violate any public policy that requires the termination of Officer Loren Pettit.”
The arbitrator’s ruling, Braud found, was consistent with “progressive and corrective discipline” required by the union’s contract with the city, and his decision sent a message that such conduct will not be tolerated. Braud also noted that the arbitrator found that Pettit was unlikely to use steroids again and that Chief Kenny Winslow has acknowledged that Pettit is capable of returning to his job and succeeding as a police officer. Braud also wrote that Pettit had no other disciplinary history during 10 years on the force.
O’Connor had ordered no back pay in his ruling last year, but assistant city attorney Steven Rahn said that Pettit might be eligible for back pay dating to the arbitrator’s decision issued 14 months ago. Pettit’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Pettit came to the attention of internal affairs in 2013, when his girlfriend reported that he had beaten her and suggested that his temper might have been inflamed by steroid use. During his arbitration hearing, Pettit testified that HCG use was common within the Springfield Police Department and that the chief used HCG. Chief Winslow wasn’t asked whether he used HCG when he testified at the hearing, but he denied using the substance during an interview last year with Illinois Times.
Pettit, who had been assigned to Southeast High School when he was placed on administrative leave prior to being terminated, testified that he used HCG under the direction of a chiropractor as a weight-loss aid. He said he obtained the other substances, one of which he injected into himself, from a trainer at a local gym who is now deceased. He said he trusted that the trainer wouldn’t give him anything illegal and that he used the substances that showed up positive in drug tests in an attempt to lose weight. Pettit, who weighed more than 300 pounds during his arbitration proceeding, testified that he had weighed as much as 362 pounds.
Still pending is a federal lawsuit against the city filed by Pettit last month in which he says that he was terminated due to his race (“Fired city officer sues, claims bias,” March 24, 2016). Pettit, who is black, says in his federal case that non-black officers who engaged in similar conduct were not terminated. The city has not yet responded to Pettit’s federal lawsuit. Pettit’s lawyer in the matter could not be reached.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.
