BREAKING NEWS: Former Auburn Police Officers lawsuit is dismissed. Documents reveal officer made obscene and violent comments over police radio, disciplined several times for poor conduct. Monday, a United States District Court Judge in Montgomery dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Auburn, city officials and former Auburn City Police Chief Tommy Dawson. The suit was filed by a former Auburn Police officer, Justice Hanners. Hanners began working as an Auburn police officer in 2006. He claimed he was fired after six years for not complying with and speaking out against a quota system. Hanners interview with ReasonTV, a libertarian monthly publication, had more than 184 thousand views on YouTube last year. Community online funding accounts were set up to help him pay his legal bills. When I first heard about that quotas I was appalled. I got into law enforcement to serve and protect, not to be a bully, Hanners explained. Auburn police denied a quota system was in place while asserting Hanners was fired for different reasons. Some of those reasons were detailed in Mondays ruling. Court documents reveal Hanners was disciplined several times for failing to do his job as well as insensitive and obscene comments over police radio. The judgement goes into detail about an internal investigation by then Chief Tommy Dawson into Hanners conduct on the job. Chief Tommy Dawson explained Hanners had been making obscene comments over the police chat system. Chief Dawson also discovered Hanners was spending time on Facebook and watching news shows when he was supposed to be working. Court documents say Dawson met with Hanners to discuss the investigation. Hanners was suspended for four days and had to get psychologically evaluated because of his chat history. According to the court documents, Hanners did not deny that his chat history was inappropriate. Court filings did not produce the messages verbatim, but described them as containing violent and obscene content concerning Mexican immigrants and Bulgarian women. Hanners receive additional training in Cultural Diversity, which may include Sensitivity and Ethics training. Judge W. Harold Albritton wrote following conclusion. Plaintiff Hanners was a municipal, not a state, employee and, therefore, is not covered by the State Employees Protection Act (Count One). As to his Section 1983 claim (Count Two) alleging a violation of his constitutional right to freedom of speech, he has failed to present to the court sufficient evidence of a genuine issue of material fact, from which any reasonable juror could find that his speaking out in opposition to what he perceived to be a quota system requirement in traffic enforcement was a substantial motivating factor in any adverse employment action taken against him. Thus, summary judgment is due to be granted in favor of all of the Defendants and against Plaintiff Hanners on both claims. In accordance with the Memorandum Opinion and Order entered on this day, Final Judgment is entered in favor of the Defendants, and against the Plaintiff Justin Hanners, and this case is DISMISSED with prejudice. Hanners has been ordered to pay court costs and fees. We are reaching out to Hanners and the city of Auburn for reaction.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 22:38:35 +0000
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