cyber-casualty

A plea deal has been reached in the sexual assault-hazing incident that occurred last year in Ellis County, Texas. In January, 2015 five firefighters sodomized firefighter Jason Waldeck with a sausage and a broom handle. The girlfriend of one of the firefighters filmed the hazing with her cellphone camera.

Read More »

Three wrongful termination cases are in the fire law headlines today, one from Oregon, one from Pennsylvania and one from Michigan. All three are updates on cases we covered in the past few months.

Read More »

Another firefighter has been caught up in sharing anti-Black Lives Matters posts, this time a battalion chief in Omaha, Nebraska. BC Joe Salcedo is now on paid administrative leave over posts he shared on Facebook that criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and President Obama.

Read More »

A Nashville district chief is under investigation over Facebook posts he made that the department leadership characterized as “racial, stereotypical, and threatening toward members of the public.”

Read More »

On the heals of a firefighter suicide associated with allegations of sex-based cyberbullying, two sexual harassment lawsuits, and an investigation into sexually inappropriate photos being posted by the department’s investigating officer, a female battalion chief has filed a sexual harassment suit.

Read More »

The past few weeks have seen an unusually high number of fire and EMS personnel get themselves into disciplinary trouble for their social media activities. Whether we use the acronym SMACS, SMACSS, or my favorite – Cybercasualty - no state has seen more of this than South Carolina following a BLM protest last week in Columbia.

Read More »

A Columbia, South Carolina fire captain has been terminated over two Facebook posts criticizing Black Lives Matter protesters who closed down I-126 Sunday evening. Captain James Morris was terminated today for “conduct unbecoming”.

Read More »

The DC firefighter at the center of an investigation into an anti-cop Facebook rant had a chance to explain himself to reporters. Tuesday, DC Firefighter Norman Brooks posted some harsh comments toward Baton Rouge police who shot and killed a black man, Alton Sterling.

Read More »

Embattled Valencia County Fire Chief Stephen Gonzales is facing criminal charges of impersonating a police officer and false imprisonment for using his emergency lights to stop a motorist earlier this month.

Read More »

A contentious restructuring of a combination fire department in New York that has already led to one lawsuit, just took a shocking turn as career firefighters accuse the volunteer fire chief of telling volunteers to break all the windows in the house of a career firefighter if it has a fire.

Read More »

A defamation suit against one of the biggest names in the fire service was tossed out of court today. Chief Billy Goldfeder was sued last year by an Illinois non-profit, Remembrance Rescue Project, over content he published in an email in 2014

Read More »

Fairfax County Fire Chief Rich Bowers agreed to an interview today with WUSA9 reporter Peggy Fox to discuss the recent sexual harassment cases that the department is facing.

Read More »

Additional details are emerging about the lawsuit filed today against the Charlotte Fire Department by former fire investigator Crystal Eschert. Eschert claims that after she raised health, safety, and financial management concerns she was retaliated against by the fire department and terminated in September, 2014

Read More »

The suicide of a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue firefighter appears to be the result of sex-based cyber-bullying, perhaps precipitated by her colleagues. The body of firefighter Nicole Mittendorff was found earlier this week in Shenandoah National Park after an exhaustive six-day search.

Read More »