Allegations of ‘double dipping’ and a hostile work environment run by a clique of officers were discussed during day three of fired police detective Mickey Sterling’s arbitration hearing.

Ellis County Sheriff Charles “Chuck” Edge, who was hired as an independent investigator in the case against Sterling, explained that double dipping means working an off duty job and getting paid for being on duty with the police department. He believes the double dipping occurred with several members of the Port Arthur Police Department and most of the allegations are related to Professional Police Escort LLC, a firm started by now resigned Sgt. Scott Gaspard and his wife. While investigating Gaspard, Edge learned there was information on Gaspard’s computer such as emails, company records for PPE and a checkbook and income tax information.

Bob Thomas, Sterling’s attorney, asked Bettye Lynn of Lynn Ross and Gannaway LLP, who is representing the city of Port Arthur, what the relevance is if the data was on Gaspard’s computer and not his client’s.

Arbitrator Don B. Hays allowed the issue to go forward where it was learned that from 2009 to 2016:

• Lt. Troy Lebouef earned about $37,000 in a seven year period.
• Det. Mark Blum, who formerly worked at PAPD and testified back in November, earned $50,850 from PPE over a period of time.
• The total earned from PPE is $748,794.69.

Edge said, though not his formal opinion, he believed there would be a lot more time slips associated with PPE.

Officers working the off duty jobs can do so by using flex time, comp time and vacation time “in order to be off for the city and run an escort and come back.”

Flex time is a situation that isn’t documented.

“If you are gone for 40 minutes you’d either come in 40 minutes early, or 20 minutes early and stay 20 minutes late or stay 40 minutes late,” Edge said. “All of the ones I talked to said the same thing. There is no record of how much flex time some are taking and this just confirmed what the officers said.”

Former Chief Mark Blanton, he said, allowed the flex time on a honor system.

Edge said he talked to a payroll person who said there was very little usage of comp time or vacation time recorded in what he was provided.

But things changed in 2016, he said. Blanton retired, interim chief Weldon Dunlap came on board and the city hired a new city manager, Brian McDougal.

Edge also spoke of the climate within the department where it was a common practice to violate policies.

“There was a clique that could do pretty much what they wanted, I’m not talking off the wall stuff, and if you rocked the boat, they’d discredit you,” he said.

One issue that Edge found disturbing was how the Joseph Gauthier case was handled. Gauthier’s truck was found atop the Rainbow Bridge in 2015 but his body was never located.