Far-right probation officer fights for his job after using sickening gestures at work

Daily Mail​

14-05-2025

An Oregon probation officer who was canned for repeatedly greeting his German coworker with the Nazi salute has been battling for reinstatement.
Shawn C. Sorensen, the lead probation officer for the Wasco County Sheriff's Office (WCSO), reportedly admitted to making the hateful gesture while shouting 'Mein Fuher' to another officer, Marco Beitl.
Beitl allegedly responded by placing his finger over his lips to mimic Adolf Hitler's mustache.
After multiple complaints and an internal investigation, both Sorensen and Beitl were fired by Sheriff Lane Magill last year.
Challenging the decision, Sorensen filed a grievance backed by the Federation of Oregon Parole and Probation Officers union.
And state arbitrator Dorothy C. Foley has ruled in his favor - demanding that the office must reinstate Sorensen.
The neutral third party decided Sorensen's behavior was inappropriate, but not blatantly biased.
But Magill has no plans of welcoming the officer back onto the WCSO team, calling out his inexcusable behavior as 'egregious and offensive.'
'We cannot tolerate a hostile work environment and will not allow antisemitic behavior at our office,' Magill told OregonLive.
'There is no excuse for this behavior...It goes to the professional standards of how we conduct ourselves in law enforcement...We are held to a higher standard.'
Sorenson owned up to his bizarre and unacceptable workplace behavior while speaking with external investigator James Ferraris.
'I've known Marco for going on 12 years and we've done that back and forth the entire time we've known each other,' Sorenson said.
'It was not uncommon,' he added, explaining he could recall at least a 20 instances of his jarring exchanges with Beitl.
He even noted he made no efforts to hide his salutes.
'It wasn't like I was going in the door, behind closed doors, and doing it,' he said, describing the historically hateful motion as nothing more than a lighthearted hello.
When Ferraris asked if anyone ever complained to him about the gesture, he responded: 'No, but it was wholly inappropriate.'
'Because even if Marco was participating in it, it could have offended somebody else,' he later elaborated.
'There might have been somebody with Jewish nationality. A Jewish person that would be very offended by that.
'I didn't think that there was, but in retrospect, even if he was participating, that was inappropriate on both of us.'
However, Beitl has denied any involvement in the Hitler-related gesturing.
'What they said I was doing, I didn't do,' he told Oregon Live. 'If you grow up in Germany, that is a crime, you don't do that.'
As noted in the investigation, Beitl had allegedly made a derogatory comment about his dog looking like a 'Jew.'
He claimed this detail was taken out of context, explaining he was saying 'It looks like he has a Jewish hat on,' referring to a kippah.
Ultimately, Beitl, who worked for Wasco County since 2012 and served 15 years as a police officer in Germany, chose not to fight for his job back, citing the expenses of hiring a lawyer.
He also said Beitl never expressed discomfort with their routine.
During arbitration on January 15, Sorensen said his encounters with Beitl were 'goofiness. They were banter,' OregonLive reported.
But county attorney Kyle Abraham was less than thrilled with Sorensen downplaying the significance of the salute.
'You mentioned that it was intended to be goofy and·banter. Was the Holocaust goofy?' he asked.
Sorensen, who started working for the Wasco County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) in 2011 after an Air Force career, asserted he has learned from his mistakes and wanted his job back.
'I'm a servant, and I found my calling at parole and probation. I am good at my job. I'm getting better. I got better daily because I made it a goal of mine to help more people,' he said.
On March 27, Foley officially ordered for Sorensen to be put back to work, calling firing him 'extreme' given his 'unblemished 12-year work history.'
A 2021 state law limits the power of arbitrators in Oregon, stating the litigators cannot minimize punishments if doing so is against public interest, specifically when 'enforcing a higher standard of conduct for law enforcement officers and ensuring an accountable, fair and just disciplinary process.'
OregonLive reported Sorensen is planning to file an unfair labor practice complaint to solidify his return to his previous position.
Magill said he will cite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on ace, color, religion, sex and nationality, when Sorensen formally tries to get his job back.
'We will continue to defend our decision to terminate his employment through the appropriate legal means,' Magill told the outlet.