The Missouri Supreme Court suspended attorney Ryan Christopher McCarty from the practice of law for disclosing confidential client information after his termination as associate general counsel for the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD). McCarty began working for the KCPD in June 2022 and was term
Editor’s Note: This is a companion case to the case covered in the article “Wisconsin Deputy Warden Properly Fired For Denigrating Muslims” on p. 3 of the September 2025 issue of Public Safety Labor News.Richard Schneiter began his career with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in 1977 as a cor
The Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment against Thomas Ray Fleming, a former Boise Police Department lieutenant, holding that a reasonable jury could find he was constructively discharged in retaliation for protected whistleblower activity under the Idaho Protection of Public Employees Act (IPPE
Charles Bozzo was terminated from his position as a corrections officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections in July 2019 after a coworker accused him of harassment. He challenged his termination through his union’s arbitration process, which ended with an arbitrator ruling against him on Marc
For nearly a decade, a public Google document titled “The Church and the End Time,” written by the Jail Administrator for the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office in Iowa, Dean Naylor, sat online. Therein, Naylor detailed his post-tribulation Rapture beliefs, predicting an impending world war that he a
A former police department employee’s unfair labor practice charges against her union were dismissed as untimely after a New York PERB Director ruled that the statute of limitations began when the union first clearly refused to represent her, not when it ignored her later, repeated requests.Sanja Dr
The Policemen’s Benevolent Labor Committee repeatedly sought information from the City of East St. Louis, Illinois, throughout bargaining between the parties in late summer and fall of 2022. The requests, sent on August 4, sought department headcounts by division, the current city budget, correspond
John Holguin worked as a corrections officer for the City of Henderson, Nevada, for eleven years. Holguin contracted COVID-19 in June 2021 after close contact with an ill coworker. He was hospitalized twice; once for initial treatment and again for a 23-day inpatient stay involving hypoxia, pneumoni
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of a firefighter seeking workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, finding that his experience of twice performing unsuccessful CPR on infants constituted an “abnormal working condition.” The Commonwealth Court reversed the Worker
Marcos Padilla, an eighteen-year veteran correctional officer at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility, entered Building A of the prison and found that the standard security equipment was not in operation. He walked past the inactive machines into a secure area known as B Control, where the d
In 2021, the Detroit Police Lieutenants & Sergeants Association filed four separate grievances on behalf of Sherell Stanley against the Detroit Police Department. One, Grievance 21-014, sought six hours of overtime pay she claimed she was owed. Two others, Grievance 21-006 for a back injury and Gri
In June 2022, Mary White, a deputy correctional officer with the Will County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois, was terminated. The termination came just two months after she had completed workers’ compensation paperwork, which she had filed due to complications stemming from a December 2020 COVID-1
A Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner issued two companion decisions on August 21, 2025, together finding that the Jenkintown Borough, Pennsylvania, Police Department and Police Chief Thomas Scott committed multiple unfair labor practices under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act
Karyn Stanley joined the Sanford, Florida, Fire Department in 1999 and served for nearly two decades. In 2016 she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but continued working for two more years until the progression of her condition forced her to retire on disability in 2018. At the time she was hi
The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) rejected an unfair labor practice charge filed by the Michigan Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, challenging the County’s decision to strictly enforce a contractual 320-hour vacation cap after years of allowing employees to exceed it. The U
Jack Soberick began serving in the Lansford Borough Police Department in Pennsylvania in 1996, became Chief of Police in 2016, and retired in 2022. As Chief of Police, his individual employment contract contained three key provisions. The first was a “me-too” clause guaranteeing him any economic o
The Pennsylvania State Police terminated Trooper Andrew Zaborowski on May 10, 2024. At the time of his discharge, Zaborowski had not yet completed his 18-month probationary period. The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association (PSTA) grieved the termination anyway, contending that regardless of his
Ferdinand Fernandez, president of Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 286, was terminated from his position as a Passaic County, New Jersey, Sheriff’s Officer on or about May 23, 2025. The termination followed his suspension for “a Disorderly Persons Offense” arising from a 2023 motor vehicle
Rayiana McMiller-Copeland was hired by the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility in Michigan in June 2024, starting as a probationary employee. Her employment was abruptly terminated on June 27, 2024, following a significant security incident at the facility. The incident in question involved f
For more than a decade, firefighters in the Compton Fire Department in California had routinely been permitted to engage in morning fitness workouts at their stations, subject to supervisory approval. The practice was well established and viewed as integral to maintaining the mandatory fitness leve
Courts have long recognized that applying the First Amendment’s free speech protection to the public employment context requires a balancing act. The Supreme Court’s 1968 decision in Pickering v. Board of Education established the now-familiar framework to determine whether a public employer violate
In August 2023, the Village of Westchester, Illinois, retained Pontifex Consulting Group to conduct a pay study. Pontifex conducted market survey of wage rates in comparable municipalities to provide recommendations for compensation adjustments. The Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Westchester Pat
Doug Donovan, a former firefighter for the City of Henderson, Nevada, injured his back on duty and filed a workers’ compensation claim, which the City accepted. In 2021, after treatment, he was evaluated and assigned a ten percent permanent partial disability rating. Donovan chose to receive his di
Until January 23, 2023, Christopher Lutz was a member of the Moraine Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 2981.The allocation of overtime shifts for members of the Local was governed by a detailed system outlined in the CBA. The Local maintained an “Overtime Equalization Chart” for lieutenants, wh