The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association file federal lawsuit
1, September 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Saturday, September 12, 2009 10:43 am
Claims of state trooper mistreatment
Federal lawsuit alleges commanders demoted and unfairly disciplined troopers who were union officials.
By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer / www.timesleader.com
High-ranking Pennsylvania State Police commanders demoted, reassigned and retaliated against trooper union representatives for reporting wrongdoing and processing grievances, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday.
The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and six of its officials, some who are assigned at state police barracks in Wyoming and Dunmore, filed the 53-page lawsuit against Commander Frank E. Pawlowski, Deputy Commissioner John R. Brown and former Commander Jeffrey B. Miller, who retired in August 2008 to become a security official for the National Football League.
The lawsuit alleges union officials were unlawfully disciplined by Pawlowski, Brown and Miller for acting out their union activities.
State police Cpl. Gerald Williams and Trooper Joseph Plant were wrongly punished, according to the lawsuit, when they were accused of “misrepresenting facts” after they complained Capt. William Oliphant was dumping household garbage at the Wyoming barracks.
Williams and Plant are officials with the PSTA. Oliphant, of Kingston, is the commander of the state police Internal Affairs Division in which the lawsuit says he has a “well-established history” of receiving preferential treatment from Pawlowski, Brown and Miller.
After a complaint was filed against Oliphant for disposing his personal trash at the barracks, Brown assigned Oliphant’s subordinate within the Internal Affairs Division to conduct an internal investigation. The investigation resulted in Plant and Williams being accused of “conducting an unauthorized investigation” that resulted in disciplinary actions filed against them in June, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit further alleges that Williams was “forbidden to perform his duties as a polygraph examiner” after the union’s August newsletter featured a story about his punishment.
4 comments:
This is all so common that employees who play a subordinate roll is always subjected to this type of retaliation. In this time and era, do we still have to shut- up and watch the corruption that is killing our governmental system or respond by reporting it. Let's face it, corruption is here to stay and we can't do anything about it but keep reporting the same exact people who are paid to unhold the law to the rightful authoritative figures. SJS
Employees always have problems with higher authority figures who like to abuse their position. At a time people can’t stand the problems and bulling that people cause and retaliate. Enough is enough but then again who should they report it too? There are so many people involved and so many people getting their cut that everyone keeps their eyes closed and do not do anything about the problem. Only if these kinds of this are caught early they would be able to be controlled and taken care of and not go to court and be made a fool out of the police.
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It is not unusual for employees to be reprimanded in unwarranted ways when they come up against someone who is alledgely favored by the higher ups. This is so interoffice politics and beauracracy that will always be.CC9223
Why are these officers being retaliated against!..They need to pick better supervisors. SJC 1687
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