Tag Archives: sexual harassment

A federal jury took just four hours to award a former Providence Fire Department rescue officer $800,000 in damages for sexual harassment and retaliation. Lori Franchina filed suit in 2012 claiming she had been subjected to numerous instances of harassment, including incidents where co-workers refused to assist her at emergency scenes.

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A Tampa firefighter who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in March, was terminated the following day. Tanja Vidovic was terminated on March 24, one day after she filed suit in federal court accusing the fire department of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

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A federal court jury in Illinois has rejected the claims of an administrative assistant with the Cicero Fire Department that she had been sexually harassed and discriminated against on account of her race and ethnicity.

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An Ohio firefighter who claims she has been subjected to years of harassment and discrimination has filed suit against her department and her fire chief. Amie Morningstar filed suit last week in US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio naming the Circleville Fire & EMS Department, the City of Circleville, and Fire Chief Marc Zingarelli.

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A New Jersey township has agreed to pay $30,000 to a female employee to settle her claims that the fire chief “smacked” her on her “rear end”. Lorie Cutts, an administrative assistant for the Medford Township Fire Department, claimed that Fire Chief Thomas Thorn smacked her on her bottom in front of 2 other firefighters.

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A Facebook post that prompted over 60,000 responses including comments from Hillary Clinton and other elected officials, prompted a post from Cleveland firefighter that is now the center of an investigation. On July 3, Humans of New York posted a photo of a weeping child saying, “I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”

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Settlements involving two fire departments are in the fire law news today. In New Jersey, a sexual harassment suit against the Franklin Township Fire District No. 3 has been settled. In Maryland, a wrongful death suit brought by the family of a 17-year old who died at a fire department sponsored carnival has been settled.

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A well known sexual harassment suit involving the Toledo Fire Department filed in 2005 is back in the news because it has been dismissed… and refiled. The suit was filed by three Toledo firefighters who claim they were subjected to gender discrimination, a hostile work environment, and retaliation

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Firefighters in Queensland, Australia are under investigation for creating a Facebook “poll” to rate which of their female colleagues would be best in bed. According to The Courier-Mail, several female firefighters who were targets of the poll have been transferred and an outside investigation is now underway.

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The Rhode Island Supreme Court heard the appeal of the City of Providence today in the decade long lawsuit arising out of the 2001 Gay Pride Parade. Two Providence firefighters ordered to participate in the parade filed suit claiming a violation of their First Amendment Rights and that during the course of the parade they were sexually harassed.

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The sexual harassment lawsuit against the City of Chicago highlighted last week in a blog post has been dismissed. On Monday, US District Court Judge George M. Marovich dismissed the complaint brought by a former payroll auditor, Deidre Green, who claimed that former Fire Commissioner John Brooks pursued her sexually and then targeted her for a layoff

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We started this week with too many fire law stories to cover them all and that is exactly how we will end it!

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A Missouri deputy chief who was fired in 2011 and sued unsuccessfully for wrongful termination to get his job back, has been rehired by the same department as assistant fire chief. Deputy Chief Cary Spiegel was one of four chief ...

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A rather strange case of harassment directed at both a father and a son has prompted a lawsuit in Westchester County. Matthew Bruno, a probationary firefighter with the Greenville Fire District who was terminated last September after complaining about being ...

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