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Quartzsite, Arizona August 3, 2011 - The La Paz County Superior Court's temporary restraining order against the town of Quartzsite went into effect Wednesday.

The temporary restraining order filed by attorneys representing the nine officers and an evidence tech put on administrative leave protects them from termination until they've had a pre-termination hearing before a neutral decision maker.

The order names the town of Quartzsite, Town Manager Alex Taft, Assistant Manager Al Johnson and Police Chief Jeff Gilbert as defendants.

"This is an injunction, reinstatement [and] a show cause order," said Mayor Ed Foster Quartzsite. "Three separate actions to restrictions which new measures against the police officers who filed a complaint with the Chief."

The City Council recently canceled Sgt. William Ponce, President of the Police Officers Association Quartzsite. The order protects Ponce and the other officers with their families to retaliation by the defendants.

However, Ponce said the defendants are not abiding by the order.  He says the defendants aren't supposed to be judge and jury in termination matters.

"Actually, they kicked me out of town hall today and told me that I'm not being reinstated," says Ponce.  "I am terminated and they are going to provide me my last paycheck.

Mayor Foster finds Assistant Town Manager Johnson's action of kicking Ponce out of town hall appalling.

"This a direct violation of the judge's orders," says Mayor Foster.  "Therefore, Mr. Johnson is in contempt of court."

The court has ordered Town Manager Taft, Assistant Manager Johnson and Police Chief Gilbert to appear at an "order to show cause" hearing on August 15th in Parker.

"How are they going to go against a judge's order, telling them that they must reinstate me," says Ponce.  "They have been provided pages of documentation as to why they need to reinstate me and apparently they think they're above that."

Unlike some of the town council meetings in Quartzsite, the hearing in Parker won't be behind closed doors.  It's opened to the public.

"These people are doing it now to outside entities.  You know, they're doing it to the county court system," says Ponce.  "The [La Paz County] Superior Court has ordered that we be reinstated and they're saying we don't have to.  So these people think they're above everybody, apparently.

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Associated Press

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) – Virginia Tech was locked down for several hours Thursday after three children attending a summer camp said they saw a man holding what looked like a gun on the campus where a 2007 massacre left 33 people dead.

The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. telling students and employees to stay inside and lock their doors. Text and phone messages were sent to more than 45,000 subscribed to the school’s alert system, along with an email sent to the entire campus, said school spokesman Mark Owczarski. The school’s outdoor sirens also sounded, he said.

The campus-wide alert was later lifted and students and staff were told to resume their normal activities, according to an email sent at 2:42 p.m. The email said there would be a large police presence on campus throughout the day.

Classes were canceled for the day. Police had received no other reports nor found anyone fitting the description the children gave. A composite sketch was posted on the school’s website, and officers had scoured the campus for any sign of the possible gunman.

Several thousand students attending summer classes, as well as the school’s 6,500 employees, were on campus when the alert was issued, said University spokesman Larry Hincker. Many of the school’s 30,000 students are on summer break and will return when the fall semester begins Aug. 22.

Maddie Potter, a 19-year-old rising sophomore from Virginia Beach, said she was working on a class project inside Burchard Hall when a friend received a text message from the school at 9:41 a.m. Soon after, staff locked the doors and turned off the lights.

Potter, an interior design major, said she was still holed up in a woodworking shop inside the building Thursday afternoon. She said things had calmed down since the alert went out.

"I was quite anxious. We had family friends who were here when the shooting took place in 2007 when he was a kind of surreal, "she said." I had my phone with me and I called my parents. "

The children told police they saw the man walking towards the rapid volley, which was carrying a handgun covered by some type of fabric.

The children who made the report were visiting the campus as part of a summer academic program for middle schoolers in Washington, Richard Tagle, CEO of the group Higher Achievement, said in an emailed statement. All the students who were with the group are safe, he said.

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