Deputy Prosecutor Who Can’t Show He Worked for County Loses Suit

Pennsylvania’s Mercer County defeated a former assistant district attorney’s claims of retaliation under federal law because he failed to show the county was his employer.

The evidence instead established co-defendant District Attorney Peter Acker controlled the hiring and firing of his assistants, including plaintiff Patrick Farrone, the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania said. The court pointed to the Pennsylvania County Code, which vests district attorneys with the sole authority to appoint and terminate assistant DAs.

Farrone’s allegation that the county was his “joint employer” under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans ...