Archives for June 2017

Court Dismisses Former Georgia Police Officer’s Claims that Department’s Failure to Transfer Him Were Discriminatory

By: Loyd Willaford and Brittany Torrence

In Pasqualetti v. Unified Gov’t of Athens-Clarke County, the U.S. District Court of Georgia dismissed a former police officer’s claims that the Athens-Clarke County Police Department discriminated against him based on its perception that he suffered from a mental disability and that the Department retaliated against him when he filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

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Reading, PA Police Officer’s “Stress Leave” Not Enough To Imply a Disability Under the Rehabilitation Act

By: Loyd Willaford and Mathias Deeg

In Cortazzo v. City of Reading, the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that a Reading police officer’s “stress leave” did not qualify as a declared disability under the Rehabilitation Act.  The Court also ruled that by maintaining disciplinary actions already in place, the City did not engage in any adverse employment actions in response to the officer’s leave.

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Pennsylvania Corrections Officer Who Falsified Prison Documents Was Not Discriminated Against After Termination

By: Loyd Willaford and Sarah Burke

In Mitchell v. Community Education Centers, Incorporated, a Pennsylvania District Court ruled a former correctional officer was not wrongfully terminated after he wrote Pablo Escobar and Fidel Castro on the prison facilities sign in sheets. Because the officer had been placed on a “last chance agreement” and falsifying prison documents was a terminable offense, the District Court ruled that no reasonable juror could find that he was illegally discriminated against.

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Maryland Federal Judge says Transfer of Baltimore Police Officer is Not an Adverse Employment Action

By Loyd Willaford and Sarah Burke

In Williams v. Baltimore County, an African American police officer alleged he was retaliated against after he was transferred to a new department. A Maryland district court disagreed, and found that a transfer without evidence of loss of pay, opportunities, or benefits was not an adverse employment action.

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Former New York Police Officer Cannot Sue for Disability Discrimination Without Clear Record of Substantial Impairment

By: Loyd Willaford and Mathias Deeg

In Hensel v. City of Utica, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled that a former police officer’s claim of disability discrimination against the City of Utica could not proceed because he had failed to show that his claimed disabilities impaired his major life activities.

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Federal Judge Finds That New York City Does Not Have to Pay Officers FLSA Wages When They Benefit More Than City From Mandatory Drug And Alcohol Classes

By Jim Cline and Geoff Kiernan

A federal judge in Gibbs v. City of New York ruled that mandatory drug and alcohol classes and AA meetings that NYPD required for officers that they felt had a substance abuse problem did not count as compensable “work” under FLSA, even though the officers’ jobs were contingent on them attending these classes. The judge found that since the mandatory drug and alcohol counseling sessions primarily benefited the employee rather than the NYPD it would be improper to require the employer to compensate them.

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