Bailiff Claims Wrongful Termination Following False Alarm

A now-former El Paso County bailiff says he was fired for just doing his job.

The former bailiff, Roy Davis, says he believes he was terminated for filing a report after a judge pressed the panic button under her desk.  This led to a false alarm that Davis says resulted in him, three other bailiffs and a Sheriff’s Deputy responding to the panic button.

According to Davis, this is the incident that led to him being let go by Judge Marlene Gonzalez.  It was a false alarm but, Davis says, that any time that panic button is pressed, they take it very seriously.

“Anytime we receive one of those alarms…we make the presumption that it is real and we always respond accordingly”, Davis told KFOX14 News.

He also says he was following protocol when he filed an incident report following the false alarm.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Nine days later he was told by Judge Martinez that he was being fired. Davis says the decision came “out of the blue” and left him feeling betrayed.  “I was in shock”, Davis said.

The article doesn’t state it explicitly but it seems like Davis believes his termination was because he filed the incident report about the false alarm.  How big of a deal is it to hit the panic button under the judge’s desk? Could it possibly have been an accident? How frequently are false alarms inside a courtroom?

Here’s something interesting the bailiff said: “Judge Marlene Gonzalez activated a panic button in her courtroom that was not an actual bona fide emergency”.

OK, so that makes it sound like the bailiff was fed up with the judge for misusing her panic button. Perhaps they had butted heads over it previously. Also, I know too well about accidentally hitting buttons.

But, if it wasn’t just a mistake, it makes me wonder what kind of non-emergency she’s using the panic button for.