The Wilco Sun reported July 16, 2016 that Georgetown agreed to reinstate officer Hoskins-Brown to the Georgetown police force while paying all litigation costs and back pay.
"According to the settlement reached and signed July 14, the city will pay her $42,624.03 in back pay to compensate the difference between her interim earnings and what her salary would have been. The city will pay$9,358.72 into her retirement system, and pay $12,023.19 for vacation hours and unused personal leave. Combined with the previous lawyer fees and $280 in additional lawyer fees, the city owes Ms. Hoskins-Brown a grand sum of $108,985.94."
The city should be grateful that officer Hoskins-Brown did not seek punitive damages for the emotional distress and disruption to her life over the past three years that this unjustified termination has caused. To the casual observer it would seem that officer Hoskins-Brown did suffer unwarranted stress and angst.
Through April 1, 2016, the city paid outside counsel $82,136.63 to litigate this case. Since additional court actions occurred after that date, additional litigation costs were incurred but are unknown at this time. The city also declined to identify the cost in city staff time that has been devoted to this case over the last three years.
In any event, this case has cost the city well over $200,000 in one form or another. It is time to move on and learn from this experience so that it not repeated in the future.
Update: Officer Hoskins-Brown was promoted from Patrol Officer to Sergeant last night by City Council according to the City Managers office. Good for Sergeant Hoskins-Brown for persevering in pursuit of a career in law enforcement with the City of Georgetown.
Ruling from Federal Judge R. Pitman
ReplyDeleteConclusion,
Plaintiff’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, (Dkt. 36), is hereby
GRANTED IN
PART AND DENIED IN PART, consistent with the terms of this order.
It is hereby established, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, that Plaintiff
Stephanie Brown’s federal constitutional right to procedural due process was violated when she was
denied an administrative hearing following the termination of her employment with the Georgetown
Police Department on November 8, 2015.
17
All other relief requested is hereby
DENIED.
SIGNED
on March 3
1, 2017
.
_____________________________________
ROBERT PITMAN
UNITED STATES
DISTRICT
JUDGE
Now that the City of Georgetown has lost again, will they continue to drag this out or will they realize that lawyers who are paid hourly have no incentive to ever see a case finished? With elections coming, citizens should look at incumbents' decision making and evaluate their reasoning. If you think they are wasting time and tax money on this issue, let them know before Tuesday's council meeting.How much spent?
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