Oklahoma AG’s Former Top Investigator Wins Disability Bias Trial

The Oklahoma attorney general’s office failed to accommodate its former chief investigator, who was experiencing heart issues, in violation of the Rehabilitation Act and owes him $37,762 for the bias, a federal jury in the state ruled.

Terry Cronkite had undergone triple bypass surgery approximately nine years before he asked in 2019 to remain in the chief investigator role after the state proposed transferring him into a drug task force job, according to the May 2 opinion by the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma that sent his case to trial.

He was 70 years old and was being treated for hypertension, high cholesterol, and coronary artery disease, Cronkite said. He believed the drug task force position would be too physically demanding and he told first assistant AG Dawn Cash and another supervisor he couldn’t do the job. He refused to accept the transfer and was fired, Cronkite said.

Following a four-day trial, the jury found Thursday that the state failed to reasonably accommodate Cronkite and Judge Charles B. Goodwin entered judgment in Cronkite’s favor on his failure-to-accommodate claim.

But the state was entitled to judgment on Cronkite’s discriminatory termination and retaliation claims under the Rehabilitation Act and the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination Act, Goodwin said. The judge had granted summary judgment against Cronkite on those claims as part of the May 2 ruling.

Hammons Hurst & Associates and Ward & Glass LLP represented Cronkite. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC represented Oklahoma.

The case is Cronkite v. Okla. Att’y Gen., W.D. Okla., No. 5:20-cv-00250, jury verdict 7/21/22.