Peter Yackel is a firefighter in the Township of Edison, New Jersey. On June 1, 2009, at approximately 7:30 a.m., Yackel arrived for his tour of duty at Fire Station No. 3 and parked his pickup truck in the parking lot as he always did. Displayed in the bed of Yackel’s pickup truck was a […]
Christopher Winesburg is a trooper employed by the Pennsylvania State Police. During the weekend of March 1, 2008, Winesburg was involved in an incident with a woman after both left a nightclub in Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City police were called to the scene, but they did not file criminal charges against Winesburg. Twelve days […]
Albert Basso was a corrections officer with the Michigan Department of Corrections. Basso was injured in a prison riot at the Ojibway Correctional Facility in April 2006. The year before, the State decided to allow the Facility to accept a higher security level of inmates than it was originally equipped to handle. Basso sued the […]
Richard Roberson is a police officer for the City of Seattle, and has a “significant disciplinary history.” In 2005, the City imposed a 30-day suspension on Roberson for three incidents. The first incident involved Roberson’s failure to properly follow up on a theft call because he mistakenly believed that “there’s no such crime as attempted […]
Edward Neal has served as a firefighter for 25 years with the City of Augusta, Georgia. Department employees are subject to random drug tests. When Neal was tested, a technician collected a urine specimen from Neal and sent the sample to an independent laboratory for testing. The written lab report indicated a result of “positive” […]
A group of police officers for the City of Harrison, New York, brought a Fourth Amendment lawsuit against the City, alleging that the installation of a video camera in the Department’s men’s locker room violated their privacy rights. Finding a lack of evidence that the camera worked as intended, a federal court dismissed the lawsuit. […]
Matthew Skogen was a police officer with the City of Overland Park, Kansas. On March 30, 2008, Skogen was involved in an off-duty confrontation with his brother that a citizen reported to the Department. After investigating the matter, the Department terminated Skogen, who appealed to the Overland Park Civil Service Commission. When the Commission upheld […]
In June 2005, Sheriff David Woolfork of the Madison County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Department attended the National Sheriff’s Association conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Also attending the conference were Assistant Chief Dan Parr, Sergeant Lisa Balderrama, Sergeant Annette Martin, Chief Tommy Cunningham, and Cunningham’s wife. When Woolfork returned home from the conference, he noticed a postcard addressed […]
Kenneth Miller was a lieutenant with the Houston, Texas Police Department. In 2006, a coworker alleged that Miller had sexually harassed her. Following an investigation, the Department “indefinitely suspended” Miller. An “indefinite suspension” is the functional equivalent of a termination. Under Texas civil service law, a terminated employee has the option of appealing to an […]
For many years, the collective bargaining agreement between the State of Rhode Island and Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) contained a clause requiring the State to pay a portion of the costs of post-retirement health insurance. The most recent agreement between the State and AFSCME expired on […]
Dennis Walsh joined the Nassau County, New York Police Department in 1990. In 2006, after rising through the ranks to the position of Detective Lieutenant, Walsh began to exhibit signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. On October 19, 2006, Walsh committed suicide. Walsh’s widow brought a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Department, alleging […]
An officer with the Town of Westerly, Rhode Island served as a canine officer for seven years. When the officer’s dog was retired, the Department informed him that while he would be assigned a new job, it could not guarantee him any particular continued assignment length as a canine officer. When the Department subsequently reassigned […]
Amon Simon is an African-American male with a permanent form of the skin condition pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB). Simon joined the Harris County, Texas Sheriff’s Office in February 2004 as a detention officer. In October 2005, Simon graduated from the Sheriff’s Office Academy and returned to work as a deputy at the Harris County jail. In […]
The first federal Court of Appeals decision on compensability of donning and doffing has been decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case involved a claim brought by police officers working for the City of Mesa, Arizona. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit held that if an employer permits the activity of […]
