Caleb Warnock - DAILY HERALD | Posted: Friday, May 2, 2008 11:00 pm
A judge on Friday ordered Eagle Mountain to reinstate and give backpay to a paramedic who was fired in March because he reported potential medical malpractice and sexual harassment incidents to his superiors.
In an appeals board hearing on Friday, Judge Dennis J. Fuchs heard arguments from city attorney Jerry Kinghorn that Bryan Miner had been "telling lies" and had been "reckless with the truth" when he reported the incidents.
But Fuchs, who did not even pause after the closing argument before delivering his verdict, said Miner had an obligation to report both incidents and therefore had been terminated wrongfully. He ordered the city to pay Miner backpay and immediately give him his job back.
Miner, who was fired on March 18, was hugged by his fiance after the judge gave his ruling. When asked to comment, Miner consulted with Eagle Mountain Mayor Heather Jackson and then said he would "hold off to see how Eagle Mountain wants to handle me."
The city will gather key staff on Monday to decide whether to appeal Fuchs's decision, said Linda Peterson, spokeswoman for Eagle Mountain. The city has 30 days to file an appeal.
In the meantime, Miner will be greeted back at work hospitably because that is what city policy requires in cases such as these "and we would expect nothing less than that to happen," Peterson said.
The city would not comment on specifics of the case, she said.
Attorney Erik Jacobson, who represented Miner at Friday's hearing, said Miner was not even present when a call came to Eagle Mountain paramedics that a patient may have suffered a heart attack or stroke. When crews arrived, an aspirin was administered to the patient, but one of the paramedics felt the man was exhibiting signs of a stroke, in which case an aspirin could have harmed the patient.
Concerned, that paramedic later expressed his concerns to Miner, who eventually told his superiors. It later turned out the patient was suffering from a brain tumor.
In another incident, a female employee told Miner in confidence that a captain of the fire department had repeatedly sexually harassed her. Miner also eventually took these claims to his superiors. The captain has since resigned his post.
In his arguments that Miner should not be employed by the city, Kinghorn said that Miner had made more than a dozen false claims, but the city had chosen to argue only two.
Miner "made up" the claim of sexual harassment "to try and get somebody in trouble" Kinghorn argued, but Fuchs said he had heard testimony earlier in the day from the employee in question and it was clear the woman had in fact been sexually harassed.
Miner's attorney argued that the city had done little to investigate the sexual harassment claim.
The claim that medical malpractice had been committed by administering an aspirin "is false," Kinghorn argued, because a doctor had later said the treatment was appropriate based on information available at the scene.
But Fuchs said not only did he find that Miner had not made false statements, but Miner had been required by city policy to report both incidents, even if Fuchs did not approve of the manner in which they were reported. Both incidents were reported at least weeks after the information was given to Miner.