WRONGFUL TERMINATION CLAIMED BY
DEPUTY WITH HISTORY OF CRUISER
By Don Lehman
QUEENSBURY -- The Warren County
Sheriff’s Office has fired a patrol officer for having too many on-duty car
accidents, and the officer responded recently by filing a lawsuit claiming he
was wrongfully terminated.
Scott Phillips was involved in
eight crashes since 2009, six of them deemed “preventable” by the Sheriff’s
Office.
Phillips was fired March 7
after a disciplinary hearing that ended with a hearing officer recommending he
should be suspended for two months.
Sheriff Bud York opted to fire
him instead, arguing that his “poor judgment” when driving a police vehicle
endangered the public.
“The record is abundantly clear
that Officer Phillips lacks the skills and ability to use good judgment when
responding to emergency calls and non-emergency use of patrol vehicles,” York
wrote in his termination notice.
That notice was filed as part
of a lawsuit that Phillips filed against the county in state Supreme Court on
March 22.
Phillips is seeking his job
back in the lawsuit, which came after York decided the punishment recommended
by hearing officer William Sprague, a former State Police major, was not severe
enough.
Phillips, a patrol officer
since 2008, has been involved in eight crashes with patrol cars since 2009, six
of them deemed “preventable” by the department. The two that were deemed
“unpreventable” involved deer.
No one was injured in any of
them. The last occurred on Route 9N in Diamond Point, resulting in a patrol car
being destroyed and $15,000 in damage to a homeowner’s stone wall.
That crash came less than three
months after Phillips was disciplined for a spate of accidents in the preceding
30 months that resulted in damage to police vehicles. An Oct. 30, 2011, crash
on Route 9 in Chester resulted in another patrol car being destroyed.
The Sheriff’s Office concluded
he was traveling about 80 mph and did not try to brake before his patrol car
went off Route 9N on the night of last Dec. 7. He told superior officers he
swerved to avoid two deer.
Phillips told police he was
trying to locate a suspected drunken driver who had been reported to
dispatchers by a driver who was following the offending vehicle, and that he
was in an “emergency” response. The Sheriff’s Office concluded the situation
was not an emergency.
Officers have broad discretion
as to when they conclude they are responding to an emergency.
In his termination letter, York
wrote that it was a “very difficult decision” to fire the officer, but he had a
duty to protect the public. He said he could not comment on the matter Monday.
Sprague, however, wrote that he
did not feel termination was warranted, pointing to Phillips’ otherwise
unblemished disciplinary record and good record of service with the department
outside of the driving issues.
He pointed to a statement by
sheriff’s Maj. James LaFarr that called Phillips a “good police officer.”
“In short, he is the type of
candidate law enforcement agencies seek to attract and employ,” Sprague wrote.
He questioned whether Phillips
has night vision problems, in light of the accidents all happening after dark.
Warren County supervisors
discussed the lawsuit in executive decision Monday, but no action was taken.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Breen,
president of the Warren County Police Benevolent Association, the union that
represents sheriff’s road patrol officers, referred comment to James Tuttle,
the lawyer handling the lawsuit.
Tuttle said the union
questioned why the department was choosing to fire Phillips when officers who
committed more serious transgressions were not fired. Examples were cited of a
sergeant who showed up for a shift after drinking alcohol and another arrested
for domestic issues, both who were not fired.
“He’s the only officer only to
be terminated for property damage accidents,” Tuttle said.
The lawsuit will be decided by
the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court.
