Pima County rehires jail guard fired for excessive force

A corrections officer who was fired in February for violating multiple policies, including use of force, is back working at the jail after being reinstated by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, documents show.

Brett Jividen was terminated after an investigation into three excessive-force complaints against him in October and November 2015, according to documents obtained from the Pima County Merit Commission. The Sheriff’s Department oversees the jail.

In the first incident, which took place Oct. 5, a video showed Jividen grabbing the inmate by his shirt and pushing him forward while taking him to his cell. The inmate stumbled forward and grabbed Jividen’s left leg, after which Jividen punched him in the head and face five times before other staff members arrived to assist.

Jividen had a different version of the incident, but admitted to using an improper escort hold, the documents state.

On Oct. 29, Jividen pushed an inmate into a cell and used profanity after the man asked for a razor. Jividen lied to investigators and said he didn’t push the inmate, but his story was disproved by surveillance video.

Just over a week later, on Nov. 9, Jividen was caught on video delivering a “malicious, double-handed impact push to (an inmate’s) upper chest area” when the man asked to see the jail’s medical staff, according to the documents.

Jividen was terminated for violating multiple department and jail policies, including use of force, standards of conduct and not treating inmates in a humane manner, according to the documents.

In Jividen’s notice of dismissal, Sheriff Chris Nanos said his “judgment and integrity are now in question.”

Jividen’s name was also submitted to the Pima County Attorney’s Office for addition to the Brady List, which is a list of law enforcement personnel who have lied or been dishonest during their career.

He appealed his termination with the Pima County Merit System commission, which heard three days of testimony in April, May and June , said Wendy Petersen, deputy director of Pima County Human Resources.

Before the commission’s August meeting, the appeal was withdrawn when the Sheriff’s Department made an agreement with Jividen to rehire him, Petersen said.

“He was rehired because we felt like the merit board was going to give him his job back,” said Nanos. “His rehiring includes a last-chance agreement with the department, saying that if he does anything else wrong, he can’t fight the termination.”

Nanos said that in the past several years, the merit board has overturned a number of cases involving fired or suspended department employees, and this seemed like the best option.

“We’ll give him one more chance,” Nanos said. “We made the agreement so that when he came back to work, he would know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.”