DRUG AGENT'S SUSPENSION OVERTURNED

Law enforcement

State Personnel Board instead reprimands chief of Riverside bureau for
giving out too many keys to evidence vault.

The state Personnel Board on Tuesday overturned the suspension of a top
drug enforcement official who was accused of "inexcusable neglect of duty,"
deciding instead to formally reprimand him for giving out too many keys to
his bureau's evidence vault.

More than $3 million worth of cocaine was stolen last summer from the state
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement's Riverside office. The crime has never been
solved, but it did lead to both stepped-up security and allegations of
shoddy management against the head of the office, Special Agent Edward J.
Synicky.

Synicky's bosses ordered him in June to serve a five-day suspension, the
most severe punishment in 17 years against a state drug agent of his rank.
He was accused of failing to follow standard safeguards in protecting
evidence and misappropriating state property by allowing several employees,
as well as his own daughter, to take home state computers.

But after considering Synicky's appeal in closed session, the Personnel
Board decided on a 3-0 vote to "modify" the disciplinary action, handing
him an official reprimand instead.

"That's a win," Synicky, a 27-year veteran of the drug agency, said when
told of the board's decision. "An official reprimand is nothing I've ever
received in my career, but it's the lowest form of discipline you can get.
It goes in your file and it's usually removed after six months. . . . I am
very pleased with this."

Board members gave no public explanation for their decision, but Walter
Vaughn, executive officer for the panel, said: "Obviously they still
consider it a serious matter. Otherwise, they would not have issued the
reprimand."

An administrative law judge who first heard Synicky's appeal in August had
recommended that the five-day suspension be upheld, Vaughn said. That was
based on Synicky's failure to properly limit the number of employees who
had keys to the bureau's evidence vault, he said.

Investigators found that Synicky was not even aware of several people who
had keys and the combination to the vault, although it has not been
determined whether any bureau employees--including one agent who has since
been charged with drug trafficking--were responsible for the 1997 theft of
about 650 pounds of cocaine at the office.

The administrative judge refused to uphold several other findings against
Synicky, including allegations that he failed to ensure other safeguards
for protecting drug evidence and that he allowed employees and his daughter
to illegally take home office computers.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan