LEC warden out, inmates may be next

Trujillo was served with his termination notice about 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday by Reeves County Chief Deputy Fred Lujan, accompanied by J.J.
Garcia, LEC personnel and training officer.

The letter stated no allegations for termination due to the legalities
involved with the situation said Gomez. "Reasons will be worked out
later with Bureau of Prisons authorities," the sheriff said.

Garcia will serve as interim warden until a replacement for Trujillo is
hired, said Gomez.

Gomez was reportedly angered by the fact that Trujillo had terminated
two LEC employees and demoted one earlier in the day. "Three employees'
jobs were threatened because they went against the warden," said Gomez.

Jesse Baeza, LEC security officer was told that his position was not
going to exist anymore, and since there were no sergeant openings
available at the time, all he could be offered was a corrections officer
placement.

Pam Bustillos, secretary to Garcia, was fired for insubordination and
Garcia was demoted from personnel and training officer to lieutenant for
insubordination.

Both employees had confronted Trujillo with issues that they felt were
not right Gomez said, but the warden would not consider revocation.

Gomez reported the situation to BOP when the employees had sought his
assistance.

Gomez also said that other employees held the same concerns but would
not speak up because of the job insecurity that they may have to face.

"People (LEC employees) shouldn't live with the threat that there jobs
may not be there tomorrow," said Gomez, and "I feel I did the right
thing."

"I'm not violating the contract, but people's rights are being
violated," Gomez said, "and if anything goes wrong, I'm gonna be held
responsible."

The Statement of Work in the Reeves County Contract with the Bureau of
Prisons, Chapter 1, Section D, states that "the facility is headed by a
single Chief Executive Officer (CEO), to whom all employees or units of
management are directly responsible."

As Stated in Section E, "the CEO or Acting CEO monitors all operations
and programs weekly through a system of inspections and reviews that are
defined in policy," Gomez does not feel that Trujillo had any right to
make such personnel decisions on his own.

Gomez said that be believes any successful institution needs to have a
check and balance system.

"We both needed to discuss these personnel issues," he said. But
Trujillo carried out his intentions without consulting with anyone, the
sheriff added.

He also feels that in any situation such as that formed by the creation
of the LEC there will always be disagreement, "but you can't have one
person in complete control," said Gomez, "that's dictatorship."

"People elected me to do my job and I'm gonna do what's right," said
Gomez, "I don't want a lot of heat."

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