Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The already bizarre case of the Asiana Airlines crash just took a major detour toward the extreme bizarre with word that a San Francisco firefighter has filed a claim against the city alleging that she has been defamed and discriminated against on account of her race and the fact she is a lesbian.
Firefighter Elyse Duckett claims the department publicly identified her as the driver of the vehicle that ran over and killed 16 year old Ye Meng Yuan, subjecting her to great media attention and ridicule. See this story for example. In truth Duckett’s vehicle appears to have been the second vehicle to strike Yuan.
Duckett, a 25-year veteran, claims the department knew the facts when it released the misinformation to the media, but deliberately chose her to blame because she is African American and lesbian. Her claim alleges the department’s intent in blaming her was “to protect the firefighter who was actually responsible for the death of Ye Meng Yuan.”
Attorney Eduardo Roy, who represents Duckett, said fire officials not only engaged in a “cover-up” of the original incident but that chief officers threatened his client after they learned that she had filed her claim last week. The claim seeks damages in excess of $300,000.
