Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The FDNY EMS lieutenant at the center of a major social media scandal that broke last March, has been sued by a woman who’s photo he posted on Twitter.
Timothy Dluhos aka The Bad Lieutenant, resigned last spring shortly after he was suspended for numerous social media indiscretions including references to Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who is Jewish) as “King Heeb”, black people as “coloreds”, and Asians as “chinks”. For years, Dluhos and numerous other EMS personnel had been routinely posting photos of patients. At the time his profile picture was Adolf Hitler.
Dluhos and FDNY are now being sued by Teena Gamzon who claims that Dluhos posted a photo of her in a wheel chair on Twitter. Gamzon claims Dluhos Photoshopped a “wide load” sign on to the back of her wheelchair as a way of mocking her.
The suit claims that Dluhos acting “with malice, defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress did cause to be published such photographs, which, upon information and belief, has been viewed by millions of individuals and has subjected the claimant to ridicule, emotional and mental distress, and other personal injuries, the extent of which is unknown at this time."
The suit accused FDNY of negligence in allowing the "the ongoing and continuous publication of photographs ridiculing sick and infirmed persons to whom the New York City Fire Department Emergency Medical Services responded.”
We are working on getting a copy of the complaint.
