The SF sheriff’s deputy behind a scandal where incarcerated people were forced to fight, and sheriff’s deputies bet on them, has been rehired after winning his arbitration case.

Back in 2015, when a racist text scandal embroiled the SFPD, the SF Sheriff's Office had its own massive scandal wherein it came to light that incarcerated people at SF County Jail were being forced to fight by sheriff’s deputies guarding the jail, and the deputies would gamble amongst themselves on who’d win. Deputy Scott Neu was fired over the affair by then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi (yes, that Ross Mirkarimi), and Neu and other deputies even faced criminal charges.  

The criminal charges were dismissed in 2019 after evidence from the Sheriff’s Office was somehow conveniently “destroyed.” And we won’t even get into the $150,000 in settlements the city had to pay (this one and this one) over the matter, nor Deputy Neu’s three sexual misconduct allegations from incarcerated people.

But I guess it’s all water under the bridge now! Mission Local reports that Neu has been rehired by the SF Sheriff’s Office, after his firing was recently reduced to just a 90-day suspension in arbitration. Neu will get his old job back  — working at the SF County Jail.

Mission Local notes that Neu will have to complete a three-week recertification course before returning to duty. That site did not get a response from the City Attorney’s Office on whether Neu would receive the nine years of back pay that he had missed, at an estimated annual salary of $177,458.

But if you think a $1.7 million public toilet is a waste of taxpayer money, well, that’s about the size of a check that again-Deputy Neu would be in line for should his back pay be reinstated.

And SF's Public Defender is furious.

“The fact that Neu will be back at his old job and in a position to potentially engage in the same violent and abusive behavior is deeply disturbing, and it’s a slap in the face to our clients and their families who bravely reported his abuses years ago,” Public Defender Mano Raju told Mission Local. “This reinstatement illustrates that members of law enforcement agencies are effectively immunized from any meaningful consequences for their misconduct because of protections under state law and local policies they have obtained through heavy lobbying. This must end.”

Related: Public Defender: SF Jail Inmates Are Made To Fight While Sheriff's Deputies Bet On Them [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist