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Merit Appeals Board
<br />December 16, 2020
<br />APPELLANT SHOOK: During the PHQ exam we were—stood up, one at a time, by officers in
<br />order to get our fingerprints done for the background check to later to happen. At which point,
<br />Mr. Reyes pointed to me said, "Sir, come with me"—and took me to get my fingerprint done.
<br />I was to stand by the table while he got the equipment ready. During that time, another officer
<br />gestured to me and said, "Come here, I got it already set up"I went with the other officer to get
<br />my fingerprints done and then he told me to sit back down.
<br />At which point, Mr. Reyes came to the—came to my table in front of me and immediately put
<br />his hand in my face and said, "Don't you ever, ever do that again. I told you to stand there, you
<br />stand there. Do you understand me?" He was very vocal, he was very physically intimidating at
<br />the time. He was trying to take control of the room as how I read it—his body language. But I
<br />didn't understand what's going on at the time. I didn't know what I did wrong. He just
<br />continued to harass me at that, just saying, "Don't you ever do that again. I told you to stand
<br />there. You frickin' stand there. Do you understand? Do you understand?" At which point I just
<br />sat there and nodded, "Yes, sir. Yes, sir"I just waited for him to stop. At which point he
<br />stopped, walked away, and I was just in shock. Honestly.
<br />After that we were broken up into separate—how am I going to describe this—we were to be
<br />taken by individual officers to review our PHQ forms. They were to overlook it with us, tell us
<br />how we can improve, any red flags on the form, etcetera.
<br />Mr. Reyes who had just accosted me, immediately pointed me out when the sergeant in charge of
<br />the class told us to break up into our groups. Instead of waiting for him to assign an officer,
<br />Reyes immediately pointed to me and said, "You're with me." Now, all the other candidates
<br />were either in that room still or they were just outside the room on the picnic tables right outside
<br />the door.
<br />Mr. Reyes took me to the elevator, upstairs to his office. I did not understand. I felt very weird
<br />about it because nobody else was being taken that far away from the group. I was sat in his
<br />office. He didn't even look—didn't even turn the pages on my form and he immediately said,
<br />"Yeah, you should sign right here. Sign out." The sign out was, we had the eligibility to drop
<br />out on our own and I didn't understand why he was telling me to do this.
<br />He said, `Based on what I see, you're not getting in." He thenI then said, "I respectfully
<br />decline, I would like to proceed." He said, "I don't know how they do it in other counties, but
<br />here you fail once you're not getting in, period." And that struck me as very—sorry—struck me
<br />as very odd.
<br />I've taken the test on Kauai, Maui, Oahu—and nobody else has told me that ever. And I've
<br />never seen that on the recruiting board. I respectfully declined again. I was, like, I wish to
<br />proceed. He just nodded his head and said, "Well, from what I see, that doesn't make for a good
<br />officer. You should sign out. Your references and, specifically"—he said, "your references
<br />cannot help you." I did not understand that either. I simply declined again. At which point he
<br />said, "Okay. Sign, sign." Stood me up and instead of allowing me to walk through the door—he
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