Fired NYC police officer wins retaliation suit
By The Associated Press
11.29.00
Editor's note: On July 25, 2001, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered the New York City Police Department to reinstate Yvette Walton and to pay her $55,000 in back wages. Hellerstein also ordered the department to remove any documents from Walton's employment record related to her "wrongful dismissal."
NEW YORK — A federal judge has ruled that the First Amendment rights of a veteran police officer who wore disguises while publicly criticizing the police department were violated when she was fired.
The city says it fired Yvette Walton, 39, for insubordination and for violating departmental orders regulating sick leave.
But a judge concluded Nov. 27 that the department would not have dismissed Walton last year if she had not criticized it after the Feb. 4, 1999, shooting of Amadou Diallo, who died after being shot 41 times by police officers.
Walton had worn disguises or had her voice electronically altered as she criticized the department at a news conference, on a national television program and at a City Council meeting in early 1999.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said in his written ruling that Walton's disguises, which included a black leather jacket, a heavy gray hood, dark glasses and a scarf across her face, did not shield her from the wrath of her bosses.
Hellerstein said the Police Department knew it was Walton who had criticized the agency at a Feb. 14 news conference conducted by the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement organization. He noted that the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement was being investigated at the time by the Police Department's internal affairs officers, who were monitoring the telephone calls to and from the organization's telephone.
"The Police Department's denial of this knowledge is not credible," the judge wrote. He concluded that Walton's dismissal was in retaliation for the exercise of her First Amendment rights.
Hellerstein, who issued his ruling after hearing evidence without a jury, set a Dec. 15 conference to discuss the issue of damages and other remedies.
Lorna Goodman, a city spokeswoman, said the ruling would be appealed.
"This woman had in fact been dismissed, given a second chance and then abused her sick leave privileges, which is the reason she was finally terminated," she said.
Walton, the only black woman assigned to street patrols when she joined the newly created Street Crime Unit in 1993, was moved out of the unit in 1995 after she concluded that it engaged in racially discriminatory practices and targeted minorities in illegal searches and seizures.
In a telephone interview after Hellerstein's ruling, Walton said she was elated.
"I'm extremely happy. I'm still floating. I can't believe it," she said.