News of the Weird: VA must rehire convicted armed robber | Reading Eagle - LIFE

Department of Veterans Affairs employee Elizabeth Rivera Rivera, 39, was fired after her arrest, followed by a February guilty plea, for armed robbery, but when she was sentenced only to probation, an arbitrator ordered the VA to rehire her, and give her back pay she "earned" while sitting in jail awaiting trial. She had been the driver for a man arrested for a street robbery in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rivera's union had demanded the reinstatement without salary penalty, for "fairness," because the same Puerto Rico VA office had earlier hired a convicted sex offender, and the office's hospital director, recently charged with DUI and drug possession, avoided VA discipline because of technicalities about the traffic stop.Compelling explanations.

1. Valerie Godbout, 33, visiting Orlando, Fla., from Montreal and charged with drug possession after alerting police with erratic driving, told the officer that she was on the wrong side of the road because that's the way traffic works in Canada. (It's not.) 2. Emily Davis, 21, caught by Portsmouth, England, police while displaying her recently deceased grandmother's handicap-parking badge, explained that she was merely "using it in her honor."Undignified deaths1. An 86-year-old woman died in February in New Cumberland, Pa., when she tripped and got her medical alert necklace caught on her walker, strangling herself. 2. A 25-year-old off-duty New York police officer was killed on a highway near Elizabeth, N.J., in March. According to the police report, the officer had rear-ended another car and had gotten out to "discuss" the matter, then suddenly pulled his service revolver and threatened the driver using road rage-type language. As the officer backed up while pointing the gun, a passing driver accidentally and fatally struck him.Ironies1. Ervin Brinker, 68, pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud as CEO of the Summit Pointe health care provider in Michigan and was sentenced in January to 32 months in prison. He had embezzled $510,000 in "mental health" payments and apparently spent it all on a Florida fortune teller. 2. Two of the three candidates for the Republican nomination for county property appraiser in Erwin, Tenn., in November died before the election, leaving Rocky McInturff the only survivor. However, he is ineligible for the nomination because he lost badly on Election Day to one of the two dead candidates.Recurring themes1. Maryann Christy, 54, was arrested in Roselle, Ill., in January when police spotted her driving through town with a 15-foot-tall tree firmly lodged in the grille of her car, sticking straight up. She was apparently too intoxicated to recall where she "acquired" the tree or how many minutes earlier that was. 2. On March 23 on Interstate 95 near Melbourne, Fla., two tractor-trailers collided, spilling their contents on the road. One truck was carrying Busch beer and the other various Frito-Lay products. - See more at: http://www.readingeagle.com/life/article/news-of-the-weird-va-must-rehire-convicted-armed-robber#sthash.xmhcxK11.dpuf