A Lincoln Correctional Center worker who had criticized the department’s random searches of employee vehicles said Monday he was suspended without pay for refusing a search of his vehicle Friday.

Brian True, a corporal at LCC, said prison officials told him Sunday evening at the beginning of his shift that, pending an investigation, he was suspended without pay for refusing the search.

True had permitted the searches twice before, although he said he told his superiors he was consenting “under duress.” Earlier this year, he filed a complaint with the Nebraska Ombudsman about the policy.

“Obviously, they’re going to try to make an example out of me,” True said Monday of the prison’s decision to suspend him.

Department of Correctional Services spokesman Steve King could not be reached for comment Monday.

King said in an earlier interview that the random searches of employee vehicles on prison parking lots were part of a longstanding, general effort to keep contraband out of the facilities.

“Everything we do is interdiction strategy,” he said. “It’s a way for us to control what’s going on in our facilities.”

True, who works the third shift,  said he could be suspended a maximum of six days without pay, and 30 days total.

He said Monday a superior told him around 2:30 a.m. Friday that the prison wanted to search his vehicle. As True and the superior stood near the vehicle, True asked if the policy on refusals had changed, True said Monday.

The superior responded that the policy had changed and that employees who refuse the searches would now be required to fill out an incident report describing the incident. The superior at the time did not mention possible suspensions that were part of the old policy.

“I said, ‘All right, I guess I’m refusing,’” True said.

As True, the superior and a sergeant walked back to the prison, the sargent told True he could still be subject to “further disciplinary action” under the new policy, True said.

Upon hearing this, True said Monday, he did not tell the superior that he would agree to the search after all. He said Monday he was uncertain what he would have done had his superior told him initially that the policy had not changed.

“I did not know what I was going to do at the time, even if the policy had not changed,” True said.

True said he does not deny that the department has the right to search vehicles if there is reasonable suspicion — some indication the vehicle contains contraband, for example — to do so.

But a search policy based on randomness, he argued, violates the Fourth Amendment ban against unreasonable searches and seizures.

True, who has been in consultation with a Lincoln attorney about the policy, said a lawsuit is “very probable.”

The Ombudsman’s Office, in a recent letter to the Correctional Services director, said a “reasonable argument can be made” for the legality of the searches. But the office suggested the department take steps to ensure the searches are truly random and to justify the searches to employees and, possible, judges.

Mike Marvin, executive director of NAPE AFSCME local 61, said Monday union attorneys are reviewing the policy.

“I see it as a violation of civil rights, of the Fourth Amendment,” Marvin said.

Marvin said his office has not received any complaints about the searches from union members. True is not a member of the union, he said.

 Reach Clarence Mabin at cmabin@journalstar.com  or 473-7234.