Merced College to cut ties with sheriff’s office

The Merced County Sheriff’s Office began moving out of Merced College on Friday, soon after being informed that its contract for law enforcement would not be extended by the school, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said Friday.

Warnke told the Sun-Star he received a fax Friday from interim college President Susan Walsh saying the contract that gives his office oversight of campus police had expired as of the end of Thursday.

The college and the Sheriff’s Office have been in a dispute over the contract renewal, which added a new caveat giving the sheriff full decision-making power over the campus police chief. Warnke added that language, he said, after Walsh tried to pressure sheriff’s Sgt. Vince Gallagher, the campus chief, to arrest a board member and to investigate faculty.

Campus leaders have denied those claims.

Previous contracts allowed the college president to demand a change in the sheriff’s sergeant position, according to college officials.

Warnke said he told Gallagher to begin removing all equipment belonging to the Sheriff’s Office from the college. The letter did not say what agency would replace the Sheriff’s Office, he said, but the office is available if an emergency arises.

“I hope the decision that Ms. Walsh has made pertaining to law enforcement on that campus does not jeopardize the safety of students and faculty,” he said.

Warnke said his office would not feel any negative effects from losing the $174,000 contract with the college. “Us not having the contract is actually helping me financially, because of the amount of time and effort we put into the equipment and training for those officers,” he said.

Merced College spokesman Robin Shepard said in a text message to the Sun-Star that the college reached a temporary agreement with the Merced Police Department to oversee campus police.

Reached by phone Friday, college board President Dennis Jordan said he had no comment and abruptly hung up on a Sun-Star reporter. Shepard, also reached by phone, said Walsh would not comment on the decision before he hung up. A call to a number listed as Walsh’s rang unanswered Friday.

Merced police Chief Norm Andrade confirmed the temporary contract that began Friday. “We will be going before the (City) Council,” he said. “Right now, we are in negotiations for a full contract.”

The fallout between the college and the Sheriff’s Office began, Gallagher has said, when Walsh and other staff members wanted his department to collect fingerprints from nine copies of an anonymous letter addressed to members of the Merced College board of trustees and others on the night in February when the board appointed Walsh as acting president.

When he refused due to a lack of probable cause, Gallagher said, Walsh considered hiring a private investigator to identify the letter’s author and specifically to find whether any college staff members were connected to it.

On another occasion, after an April board meeting in Los Banos, Gallagher said, Walsh told him to arrest trustee Cindy Lashbrook, who was thought to have recorded audio during a closed-session meeting. Lashbrook told the Sun-Star this week she did not record the meeting.

Gallagher said he spoke to Harold Nutt, Merced County chief deputy district attorney, about the incident and determined there was no reason to arrest Lashbrook. Nutt confirmed the conversation in a telephone interview this week.

The college was paying to have a sheriff’s sergeant on campus to run the department of four sworn officers charged with maintaining security at the 267-acre campus, which had nearly 4,200 full-time students enrolled as of last fall.

Walsh requested on June 21 to have Gallagher removed from his position, a request that’s never been made by any college president in the 16 years of the sheriff’s contract, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Warnke has said Walsh’s attempts to make demands of the campus police were tantamount to using law enforcement as a “political tool.” He told the Sun-Star that Gallagher’s “integrity is above reproach.”

Once the move out from campus is clear, Warnke said, Gallagher will be reassigned within the Sheriff’s Office.

This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Merced College to cut ties with sheriff’s office."