Former Linn County Deputy Appeals Firing After OWI

A former Linn County sheriff's deputy is appealing his firing after an arrest for drunken driving.

Travis Klima, 30, had been a deputy just under three years when Sheriff Brian Gardner fired him Nov. 12. Klima was arrested for drunken driving Oct. 23 in Decorah.

Klima has entered a written guilty plea to drunken driving, according to his attorney, Carter Stevens of Waterloo.

The county's civil service commission is hearing Klima's appeal this afternoon at the sheriff's office in Cedar Rapids. The commission won't rule today.

In his opening statement, Assistant Linn County Attorney Gary Jarvis called the arrest part of ”a pattern of behavior or poor judgement that culminated on Oct. 23.”

Stevens tried to convince commissioners Klima's conduct warrants suspension or other lesser sanction but not firing.

“We aren't really going to have much dispute with the facts,” said Stevens. “No one is contending this is not serious.”

After Klima's arrest, Decorah police found his service pistol in the unlocked glove box of his truck. They also found a bottle containing the prescription painkiller Tramadol, lacking the name of the patient and prescribing doctor or pharmacy as required by law.

Sheriff's Major Doug Riniker testified Klima told him he'd obtained the drug in the spring of 2009 from a nurse at the jail. That nurse no longer works for the department because of the incident, Gardner testified.

Klima was previously disciplined for failing to conduct the required hourly cell checks on six occasions over a nine-month period, and for bringing a broadhead from a hunting arrow to the jail. He gave the arrowhead to another deputy, who lost it. The head turned up the next day when it fell out of a stack of papers a deputy was delivering to an inmate, Riniker said.

Klima's guilty plea means he'll lose his driver's license for up to two years, making it impossible to transport prisoners to and from the county jail. New deputies typically spend several years as jailers, and a driver's license is a requirement.