Fire Dept - Slander/defamation

[miknwv]

What is the name of your state? West Virginia.

I work for a local volunteer fire dept. Recently, the morale has gone down and we have lost several good members due to the chief acting like a child and making comments about everyone. Recently, he stated to two members of another dept, several members of our dept, and even called me, stating that my unborn child (due August) belongs to someone else. The stress this caused effected my ability to perform while on emergency calls to the effect that every time I would see the chief on an emergency call I would get enraged and I was afraid I would make a life-threatening error. I temporarily withdrew from the fire dept and researched our bylaws. They state that if I have a problem with the chief to take it to teh assistant chief. When I took it to the assistant chief, instead of offering help, he told me he heard I made comments about his son and he wanted to break my nose for it. (By the way, I never made such comments, the chief said that to him so he wouldn't pursue helping me).

So, I took it in front of the board of directors. It is a violation of the by-laws to slander any member of the dept and it also says in the by-laws that the chief can be removed from office for misconduct. I cited the violation in teh board meeting and he immediately said he would speak no further until it went to an executive session hearing internally.

Everyone he made these comments to are too scared of him to step up and back me, although they all feel the same way I do. The executive session hearing involving the board of directors is probably going to operate similarly to a trial hearing, etc. Since nobody is willing to step up and back me, all I have is an email the chief sent me after I confronted him about it. The statement "Regarding the statement you claim I made about your family, all I will say is that it was taken way out of context" appears in this letter. Doesn't it sound like he is admititng it right there by saying it was taken out of context?

My question is...do you think this would hold up? I know it's hard to tell because things are different in the dept but in general..do you think it would hold water? What would I need to take with me to be prepared at this meeting?

Thanks a bunch....if I can get him removed as chief we can have so many members back and have a fully functional fire dept again.

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? West Virginia.

I work for a local volunteer fire dept. Recently, the morale has gone down and we have lost several good members due to the chief acting like a child and making comments about everyone. Recently, he stated to two members of another dept, several members of our dept, and even called me, stating that my unborn child (due August) belongs to someone else. The stress this caused effected my ability to perform while on emergency calls to the effect that every time I would see the chief on an emergency call I would get enraged and I was afraid I would make a life-threatening error. I temporarily withdrew from the fire dept and researched our bylaws. They state that if I have a problem with the chief to take it to teh assistant chief. When I took it to the assistant chief, instead of offering help, he told me he heard I made comments about his son and he wanted to break my nose for it. (By the way, I never made such comments, the chief said that to him so he wouldn't pursue helping me).

So, I took it in front of the board of directors. It is a violation of the by-laws to slander any member of the dept and it also says in the by-laws that the chief can be removed from office for misconduct. I cited the violation in teh board meeting and he immediately said he would speak no further until it went to an executive session hearing internally.

Everyone he made these comments to are too scared of him to step up and back me, although they all feel the same way I do. The executive session hearing involving the board of directors is probably going to operate similarly to a trial hearing, etc. Since nobody is willing to step up and back me, all I have is an email the chief sent me after I confronted him about it. The statement "Regarding the statement you claim I made about your family, all I will say is that it was taken way out of context" appears in this letter. Doesn't it sound like he is admititng it right there by saying it was taken out of context?

My question is...do you think this would hold up? I know it's hard to tell because things are different in the dept but in general..do you think it would hold water? What would I need to take with me to be prepared at this meeting?

Thanks a bunch....if I can get him removed as chief we can have so many members back and have a fully functional fire dept again.

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?p=884061#post884061


There are thousands of posts similar to yours so I have prepared a standard answer:

Get a lawyer.

Invest $20K and three years.

Sue the bad people for defamation.

If you win, expect them to keep doing it.

If you lose, expect them to keep doing it.


Stand by for other opinions.

 

[miknwv]

Hehehe....its the harsh truth..and thats what im afraid of. My main question is that since the board meeting is going to be run similar to a trial hearing, without a lawyer, what can i prepare/bring with me to help my case?

 

[panzertanker]

Hehehe....its the harsh truth..and thats what im afraid of. My main question is that since the board meeting is going to be run similar to a trial hearing, without a lawyer, what can i prepare/bring with me to help my case?

From what you have stated thus far;
your email
your timeline (written down chronologically)
yourself

Why are you fighting this so hard when it is volunteer???

Tell the "chief" to fly a kite and move on to another department...

P.S. if you get so angry at the sight of him at the scene of an accident that you feel like your concentration is lost and you might make a mistake....go into another line of work - emergency is NOT your area. you should be able to handle a non-threatening presence like him without causing interference in your ability to deliver care.

 

[miknwv]

The reason I feel so strongly about it is because I have a strong sense of civic duty. My uncle whom I was very close to was the asst. chief at the same fire dept and he passed away in 2001. I joined a year later to pick up the torch....so it has a little more meaning for me than it would most people. Plus, my entire family lives in this community, so when the pagers go off and there's nobody there to answer it because he's ran them all off....then my family is in danger.

Everyone knows that in most cases, when someone is angered when driving, they become a liability and drive irrationally. I can handle emergency services just fine, I've been doing it for 5 years. He has made tons of slanderous comments about me but I've learned to deal with them and move on, there are more important things to worry about. However, I'm a good ole WV boy...and NOBODY makes a comment about my wife or family wtihout a fight. As far as level of care is concerned, its a fire dept so we rarely treat patients, that's what EMS is for. I'm just worried that he's gonna make a comment to me on scene which he normally does, and i'm going to fly off the handle and attack him, making a scene unstable and possibly getting someone hurt.

Hehe, i wish it was as simple as telling him to take a hike. He's been chief for over 20 years, mainly because everyone who plans to vote against him are ran off. Plus he has the bylaws of the dept written so well that it almost guarantees he'll always be chief.

I noticed your location on your profile there...do I need an esophagogastroduodenoscopy just to see where you live? LOL.

 

[LdrClmr]

Most young volunteer firefighters aspire to join the ranks of the paid set, this is rather hard to do when their service record from a volunteer department has off color informations on it such as what mik here is indicating as a result of his Chiefs treatment.

Also it is pertinent to know that not all volunteer departments are unpaid, some do recieve a sum of money for services rendered through out the course of their service.

The fact that the person in question has suffered negative comments from a person of authority in a public service entity and it has extenuated to his wife and children is unacceptable.

By the way, I find it hard to determine how anyone can make a statement insurrounding a persons capabilites in the emergency services when all they have to go on is a short, incomplete posting on a forum...prehaps a more intensive discovery of circumstances would be permissable to come to such a conclusion.

When I have legal questions I go to a lawyer and ask for information about the topic in question....when you guys have questions about fire supression or safety you come to guys like me.

Prehaps a review on how other departments have dealt with issues such as these would be beneficial to not only the poster of the initial thread but to others as well....its not all as cut and dried as the prior comments towards the initial question have made it seem.

I thank you for your time and consideration.

Remember the Fallen...Igni Obstare!

 

[miknwv]

It's been awhile since I posted on this...but I'll give you a rundown on how this board meeting went.

First, the chairman fails to show up, therefore according to the by-laws, the board couldn't officially conduct business. They agreed to have an "informal discussion" and take their findings to the next board meeting for decisions to be made there.

During this board meeting, the chief admitted he made an off-color comment regarding my friend and my wife. The by-laws state: "Any member may be penalized for slandering or otherwise wronging the department or its officers and members by any willful act." He claims that it wasn't willful toward my wife, that it was a willful comment toward my friend, who now lives in Florida.

The board saw right through this, basically asked him if anybody forced him to say it... and he said no, so they said "then it was willful." At this point, the chief got up and walked out of the "informal discussion" mad. The board will discuss the findings of this informal discussion at the next board meeting that is coming up and make a decision from there.

No legal question here, just your personal opinions but.... is it looking good in my favor?

 

[longsally111]

chief is a jerk

I commend you for standing up for yourself. Unlike others who have posted here, do NOT just find another line of work. If you love what you do, defend yourself and get this jerk out of his office!!!!!!!! As the men always say " go to the mattresses". I wish you luck.