This screenshot is from a video shown by Animal Wellness Action at a press conference last year. The video allegedly depicts a Department of Agriculture commodity inspector, wearing the striped T-shirt, participating in a cockfighting event in Yigo in June 2021.
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — An agriculture employee who was seen in a video leaked last year of a cockfighting event has been reinstated by the Civil Service Commission.
Ken San Nicolas is set to be reinstated as a Department of Agriculture commodity inspector following the dismissal of his adverse action appeal in the Civil Service Commission on Tuesday.
San Nicolas’ appeal was related to a video released last year of him at a cockfighting event that occurred in 2020. According to Post files, San Nicolas was wearing a black-and-white striped T-shirt and holding a rooster that would soon be pitted against another bird.
In the Civil Service Commission’s dismissal, it states San Nicolas’ supervisor Patrick Artero saw the video June 22, 2021, before San Nicolas received his final notice of adverse action in April last year.
Under Guam law, management is to provide an employee notice of the adverse action no later than 90 days after they learned about the details that would lead to an adverse action.
In San Nicolas’ case, he was served almost 11 months later, after Artero “saw the incriminating video,” which ultimately led to San Nicolas’ motion for dismissal and a subsequent unanimous vote by the commission to grant it.
In addition to San Nicolas being reinstated immediately, the dismissal also states he will receive full back pay and benefits.
If the Department of Agriculture fails to reinstate San Nicolas, the commission states the responsible agency head and their deputy will have a 10% reduction in salary “from the date of the decision until the date of reinstatement is in full compliance with the decision.”
The Civil Service Commission may also bring the case to the Superior Court of Guam to further enforce the reinstatement of the employee, according to the dismissal.
Animal Wellness Action
Following San Nicolas’ dismissal, animal rights organization Animal Wellness Action, according to a press release, “reacted with shock and alarm” to San Nicolas’ reinstatement, primarily due to the fact that animal fighting is a federal felony.
AWA stated they intend to forward the case to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“It’s an upside-down world when an official commission review makes a finding that an employee pictured in videos participating in illegal cockfighting is rewarded with reinstatement and back pay,” AWA president Wayne Pacelle said in the release.
“Neither Mr. San Nicolas nor the leaders of the Guam Department of Agriculture are allowed to pick and choose which federal statutes they observe. Today, we are referring the evidence of felony violations of the federal animal fighting to the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against Mr. San Nicolas,” Pacelle added in the release, which was issued April 12.
According to the release, a whistleblower sent the video of the cockfighting event to the AWA and called on GDOA Director Chelsa Muña-Brecht to terminate San Nicolas once his identity was confirmed.
Cockfighting was federally banned on Guam and other U.S. territories just before the end of 2019, following the one-year phase-in period set by the 2018 Farm Bill.
