We have been following a line of cases where teachers (and here and here and here and here and here), city managers, lunch ladies, police officers (and here), coaches, students and others have been fired for lawful conduct committed in their private lives. These cases are also occurring abroad in countries like England. We can now add Jessie Lunderby, a 21-year-old jailer in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Washington County Sheriff’s officer has been suspended after she participated in a nude photo shoot for playboy.com.
Launderby’s June 7th Cybergirl appearance did not please her bosses, who suspended her and started an investigation that may lead to her termination.
The photos included a bio section that referred to her employment as a detention officer with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Tim Helder (right) was outraged: “It just beams directly back to this organization….Does it represent what we stand for which is to protect and serve the community? Is that how we want to be represented?” I would say no. What it represents is a woman who is pursuing a lawful activity in her private life. Moreover, Lunderby says that she informed her superiors.
The suspension is based on her violation of a provision that bans conduct considered “unbecoming of an officer.” It is a wildly ambiguous standard when applied to the private lives of officers. Lunderby did nothing illegal and whether such pictures are “unbecoming” is much in the eye of the beholder.
Source: ABC.
I want to pose for Playboy. I plan to work in the animation industry. I hope that I can do both without incident. Posing for Playboy, like working in animation, has been a long time dream that I intend to make come true.
Buddha,
I’ll second your motion that what this office did pales in comparison to all of the abuses that we have seen from police officers around the country.
Holy crap! You mean she was naked underneath that uniform! I though LEO’s were born wearing dress blues and riot gear.
I guess I just have a different standard for “conduct unbecoming an officer”.
Like shooting a stopped motorist for no apparent reason.
Like fabricating evidence.
Like tasing at will.
Like refusing medical care to a pregnant woman.
Like arresting a guy for saving a someone from drowning.
Like harassing the public for a corporation like BP under the color of authority.
Those are all conduct unbecoming a human much less an officer.
But getting naked for Hef’s outfit?
That’s not even in the same neighborhood much less in the ballpark.
Mespo,
Exactly … I’m sure it was planned from the moment she contracted to do the photo shoot … wait to get fired and then hop on the bunny trail … that’s why I couldn’t work up any kind of indignation.
“Sheriff Tim Helder (right) was outraged: “It just beams directly back to this organization….Does it represent what we stand for which is to protect and serve the community? Is that how we want to be represented?”
*************
“If we can’t do it with unattractive women, we won’t do it at all,” exclaimed the righteous, though exasperated, Sheriff.
Does anyone really think this young lassie will spend one more day walking the cell block? Playboy Mansion, here I come!
I cannot make a final determination as to where I fall on this issue until all of the evidence is disclosed!
She should have just beaten and tased a cuffed inmate. She would have gotten off with a paid suspension.
get drunk and pull your gun, don’t worry bro we got your back.
show your boobs, lose your job. maybe she should have pulled her gun on the playboy photographer.
a little more nekkid and a little less …not sure what to call it, bullying? brutishness?, ‘I’m the man’?, anyway, a little less of that and the world would be a much better place…
One real problem–if this gets around the jail, the inmates will make her life miserable. Her employer will then have to use additional resources to deal with the inappropriate inmate conduct or get sued.
I’m having a hard time getting all indignant about this story …
I could see posing for playboy becoming a security issue for the guard, and when I just read the headline I thought that’s exactly what had happened. Firing her for violating some morals clause of her contract? Let me reuse my comment on the last Iran thread: “Theocracy sucks.”
John,
Valid point. If they had done a routine traffic stop how do you tell the difference?
Bryon,
Just in case she wants crackers, I’ll keep some in the night stand.
John thanks for connecting the dots.
And yet some sheriff’s depts let off duty deputies drive their taxpayer supplied units for hire when employed by corporations like BP, to pull over unsuspecting citizens that have no idea that this cop is off duty and working for hire!
AY:
Did you look through those pictures on the link? Most of those women were skanks, I haven’t seen a Playboy for about 25 years but it looks like it has gone way down hill in the looks department. I guess Heff isn’t as involved as he once was.
Now if Cousin Lulu from HeeHaw was posing for this I don’t thing that people would have thar Knickers in a knot. Since this child, appears to be of the legal age and she was off duty, unlike the Round Rock, Texas officers that posed with Police Equipment she appears to have brought nothing down in the eyes of the public.
Maybe some people would be pleased to have been arrested, jut to have her company….. A woman can be a LEO’s best friend….