Michigan Firefighter Sues Claiming First Amendment Retaliation

A Michigan firefighter who was terminated after he circulated a petition to have another firefighter’s demotion reversed, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the fire department and the fire chief violated his First Amendment rights.

Glen Naghtin served 31 years with the Montague Fire Department until he was terminated on December 7, 2011.

At the time, the Montague Fire District Board was building a new fire station and had assigned Captain Donald Roesler and another individual to supervise the project.

According to the complaint, Captain Roesler, brother of then Fire Chief Dennis Roesler, raised some concerns “about the flaws in the construction, including the fire code violations and the deviations from accepted specifications.”

The complaint continues:

• As a result of the mounting tensions surrounding this issue, Captain Roesler requested a leave of absence from the fire department until the issues cooled. Despite the fact that no one had ever been denied a leave of absence, Defendant [Fire Chief] Roesler denied Captain Roesler’s request and instead demoted Captain Roesler to fire fighter due to his speaking out about the issues with the fire station construction.
• After Captain Roesler was demoted, Plaintiff initiated a Petition to reinstate him and circulated it amongst most of the firefighters.
• Sometime after Plaintiff circulated the Petition, another individual mailed it to each member of the Defendant Montague Fire District Board. Thereafter, the Defendant Montague Fire District Board scheduled a special meeting for December 7, 2011.
• At the December 7, 2011 meeting, Defendant [Fire Chief] Roesler recommended that the Defendant Montague Fire District Board terminate Plaintiff’s employment and the Board then voted to do so.
• Plaintiff is informed and believes that the Defendants terminated his employment due to his initiating and circulating the Petition concerning Captain Roesler’s termination.
• This was a violation of his First Amendment right to speak out on a matter of public concern, including Defendant Roesler’s custom and practice of taking adverse employment action against anyone who criticized his performance as Chief.
• Defendant Montague Fire District Board‘s responses to Chief Roesler’s actions amounted to a system of informal regulation of political speech and was designed to chill any firefighter of ordinary sensitivities from exercising his or her rights to First Amendment protections.
• As a consequence of Defendants’ actions, the movement opposing Defendant Roesler’s termination of Donald Roesler and its consequence to the city’s residents was silenced as other firefighters were unwilling to risk being terminated for exercising their First Amendment rights to oppose The Defendants’ policies and practices. Consequently, Plaintiff and other firefighters supporting his position were unable to achieve their goals in making and continuing the citizens’ awareness of the Defendants’ over-spending and under-protecting them with respect to fire protection.

The suit was filed on November 25, 2014 in US District for the Western District of Michigan and names the Montague Fire District and Chief Roesler personally and in his official capacity.

Here is a copy of the complaint:  Naghtin v Montague Fire District