Michigan Police Official Can’t Nix Dispatcher’s Retaliation Suit

Warren, Mich.'s former police commissioner failed to show he’s immune from a dispatcher’s suit alleging she was fired for her role in a gender discrimination class action against the city, the Sixth Circuit ruled.

The law was clearly established that public employees can engage in protected speech without facing retaliation and that public officials were charged with knowledge of that right, a unanimous panel said Wednesday. That Linda DeVooght, who was subjected to a two-month investigation 11 days after she and other female dispatchers sued, had misused a department database for personal purposes didn’t change the qualified-immunity analysis, the panel ...