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Behold this photo of The Grinch rolling through a red light in a cop car. You might be asking yourself, "Cool, but what the heck?" This visual peculiarity is part of a lawsuit claiming that three members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department were retaliated against for whistleblowing. The Grinch is allegedly a deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department who, in December of 2013, committed a traffic offense in order to take this very photo. The photo comes via a red light camera in Victorville. The photo was entered into court proceedings on Monday, according to NBC Los Angeles. There are three plaintiffs in the suit against the county: Deputy Brian Moler, retired Sgt. Tim Jordan and Deputy Jeff Wetmore. They claim that they were subject to retaliation after speaking out against what they say was an illegal ticket quota at the Victorville station. Moler said he was moved from his motorcycle assignment to patrol, Wetmore said he was also transferred after criticizing the ticket quota, and Jordan said he retired because of a hostile environment, according to the Press Enterprise. Moler testified that he felt like a "black sheep" after making the complaints, the Victor Valley Daily Press reports. Attorneys for the county claimed that the 200 citations recommended per month by Lt. Jon Billings was merely a suggestion, not an enforced quota.
Moler also stated that he had been asked to give a Victor Valley station secretary a warning instead of the speeding citation he had initially written. Billings testified he was merely trying to avoid petty squabbles between the two stations.
The thing about the Grinch comes in because Moler said that particular deputy was never punished for his alleged bad behavior. Attorneys for the department responded by showing a video of Moler dancing in the street to "The Way You Make Me Feel," but Moler said his dance was not comparable to the Grinch incident, and that it had been approved by a supervisor for an office Christmas party video.
"As silly as this is going to sound, dancing in public is not a violation of department policy," he said.
Moler was also not amused by the Grinch. "It was posted around the station as if it was a big joke. I didn’t think it was funny," he said.
The Press Enterprise reports that a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department Engineer was demoted to firefighter in 2012 after activating a red light camera with his lights and sirens on, as well as his hands off the wheel in order to give the camera two thumbs up.
