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Department of Public Safety whistleblower sues to get job back

Posted at 6:40 PM, Dec 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-17 00:36:41-05

Fired for lying or fired for being a whistleblower? 

A former Department of Public Safety bomb squad tech is filing a suit with the Arizona Personnel Board to get his job back.

He claims he was retaliated against, and eventually fired over the 18-page letter he turned in to the department’s Internal Affairs division about the problems, specifically in the bomb squad unit.

Read the complete letter here.

The main takeaways from Simon Wade’s letter? Mismanagement, lack of training, and misuse of government funds. He also claims decisions made by his supervisor could have put lives in danger.

Ten days after submitting the letter, DPS launched an investigation into Wade.

An internal affairs document shows that DPS found Wade made untruthful statements and eventually used his alleged dishonesty as the main reason to fire him.

But Wade isn’t backing down, he’s adamant that internal affairs only looked into him, not any of the actual allegations.

He also says officers he named in the letter were called in, only to be asked if they had something to do with the letter itself.

ABC15 has put in a request for reports detailing the internal affairs investigation. DPS cannot comment because it is an ongoing case.

The next hearing is on January 13.