Fired, rehired officer won't return as ROPE
Though Jesus "Jesse" Padron has been rehired to the Elgin Police Department, he will not return as a ROPE officer, Police Chief Lisa Womack said Monday.
In an e-mail sent to Chuck Keysor, president of the Near West neighborhood that Padron monitored for about a year, Womack writes:
"…Please pass along to your group that Officer (Greg) Schneider will be continuing as your ROPE officer. There will not be any change in Greg's status and he will continue to provide your neighborhood with the excellent service he has been up to this point."
It's unclear if the move runs counter to an arbitrator's ruling that the department return Padron "to the last position he held."
Jack P. Cerone, the arbitrator who decided on Padron's case, declined comment on the matter through his assistant, saying he doesn't discuss his rulings with the news media.
Womack says her action is consistent with the arbitrator's verdict because she had removed Padron from the Resident Officer Program of Elgin prior to his dismissal.
"He was a police officer with the city of Elgin police department on administrative leave prior to the initial termination," Womack said. "He was not acting in the capacity of a ROPE officer."
There are five resident officers in the city, and as part of the ROPE program they live in city-owned houses in the neighborhoods they're assigned to oversee.
Padron lived in the city's house at 110 N. Union St. and refused to leave after he was fired, forcing the city to begin eviction proceedings against him in court.
Womack terminated Padron last October at the conclusion of a three-month internal investigation that accused the 19-year veteran police officer of attempting to shoplift merchandise from a Carson Pirie Scott store in Schaumburg. Padron has maintained his innocence and was never charged in that incident.
Last Friday, Cerone ruled that while the city must bring him back to the police force, he is not entitled to back pay or benefits.
He became the second officer fired under Womack to win his job back through arbitration.
But Padron says he has not yet been issued a starting date or an explanation of his new duties. Womack said she couldn't comment on those points and referred questions to the legal department, which could not be reached Monday.
Moreover, Padron says it appears the city is violating the arbitrator's order by not reinstating him as a ROPE officer, and is deciding what to do next.
Nonetheless, he says he's happy to return to policing.
"I pretty much just want to go back to work, whether it's as a patrol officer or as a ROPE officer," Padron said. "I just want to put things behind me."