The Bureau of Land Management’s former top law enforcement official who was dismissed more than three years ago amid assertions he was being punished for complaints about a senior BLM official has now been cleared to return to his previous post with back pay.
BLM did not appeal an administrative law judge’s order last month that ruled Eric Kriley, the former director of BLM’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security, must be reinstated to the post he was abruptly removed from in October 2021, according to Kriley’s attorney and two people familiar with the case who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
BLM had until Friday to ask the full Merit Systems Protection Board for a formal review of the May 9 order from Administrative Law Judge Evan Roth. Because it did not, the bureau now has 60 days, or until Aug. 12, to comply with Roth’s order that directed the bureau to “cancel” Kriley’s removal and “retroactively restore him as Director of the Office of Law Enforcement and Security.”
BLM also owes more than three years’ worth of back pay to Kriley, who was formally demoted in 2021 by Mike Nedd, then a BLM deputy director and Kriley’s immediate supervisor. Kriley was transferred to a law enforcement position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he currently works.
