(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
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Corrections officer fired after arrest and altercation involving his gun and badge [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- June']
Date: 2023-06-26
A state corrections officer was fired earlier this year after being accused of making a false report to police and then trying to curry favor with officers by flashing a badge he had purchased.
State records indicate Mark Pepper, 51, of Burlington, was working for the Iowa Department of Corrections in January as a full-time corrections supervisor and captain when he was involved in an altercation with Clint Welch, who was the husband of a woman Pepper was seeing.
The state records indicate Pepper accused Welch of harassing and threatening him after learning of the relationship his wife had with Pepper. According to police records, Pepper was at his girlfriend’s home on Jan. 11, 2023, when Welch drove by, saw Pepper’s Chevy Silverado in the driveway, and then rammed his Dodge truck into Pepper’s vehicle, totaling the Silverado. That led to an argument between Pepper, his girlfriend and Welch. According to the DOC, at some point, Pepper raised his shirt to display a holstered gun he was carrying and placed his hand on the top of the gun.
Pepper then called 911 and, according to police records, falsely informed the dispatcher shots had been fired, saying, “Clint Welch, he tried to kill me when he hit my van or hit my truck. You need to send paramedics, as well. Gun shots fired.”
After the police arrived, Pepper grabbed items from his car, including a police badge that he had purchased. When Pepper met with officers later, he allegedly displayed his badge, according to state records.
He was charged with filing a false police report, a simple misdemeanor, and was fined $105 and awarded a deferred judgment. Welch was charged with criminal mischief and, because his son was in the Dodge truck at the time of the collision, child endangerment. Those charges are still pending.
On Feb. 16, the DOC fired Pepper for having displayed a weapon, falsely reported that shots had been fired, then identified himself as a correctional officer to the police and displayed his badge. Pepper had worked for the department for 12 years.
Pepper then applied for unemployment benefits which led to a hearing before Administrative Law Judge Blair Bennett. Bennett ruled that Pepper had committed misconduct that disqualified him from collecting benefits.
Pepper “knew or should have known that misuse of the public 911 system by lying to operators to secure a faster response, and then flashing his badge to police officers, was done in a blatant attempt to have the system work outside of its normal parameters and to curry favor with the police officers,” Bennett’s ruling states.
Pepper appealed that decision to the Iowa Employment Appeal Board, which recently upheld Bennett’s decision and ruled Pepper’s conduct was not merely a spontaneous act that occurred during a moment of stress.
Pepper, the board, said, “didn’t merely volunteer that he was a correctional officer, didn’t merely lie about shots being fired, didn’t merely put on his work hat before interacting with law enforcement and didn’t merely flash his badge when the police arrived. He did all these things.”
Pepper told the Iowa Capital Dispatch he believes the Department of Corrections “took the perpetrator’s side” and “basically victimized me by allowing his testimony in their investigation.” He said the administrative law judge and the Employment Appeal Board then failed to consider his previous “victimization” by Welch and the stress of the situation that led to his 911 call.
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https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/06/26/corrections-officer-fired-after-arrest-and-altercation-involving-his-gun-and-badge/
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