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Jury Awards $1.4 Million in Charlotte Retaliation Case

Curt Varone May 11, 2017

2 38 Less than a minute

A former arson investigator for the Charlotte Fire Department was awarded $1.4 million today in a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Charlotte. Crystal Eschert, a former arson investigator for the city was fired after she voiced safety concerns over a new fire department building. The City had claimed Eschert was fired for posting inappropriate Facebook posts.

Bill Maccarone

Curt Varone

Curt Varone has over 50 years of fire service experience and 40 as a practicing attorney licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. His background includes 29 years as a career firefighter in Providence (retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief), as well as volunteer and paid on call experience. Besides his law degree, he has a MS in Forensic Psychology. He is the author of two books: Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services, (2006, 2nd ed. 2011, 3rd ed. 2014, 4th ed. 2022) and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook (2007), and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine writing the Fire Law column.

2 Comments

mr618 says:

May 13, 2017 at 12:24 am

I don’t know what she was complaining about. The building was designed and built by the same professionals who did the “Ghost Ship”…

Curt Varone has over 50 years of fire service experience and 40 as a practicing attorney licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. Besides his law degree, he also has a master’s in forensic psychology. His fire service background includes 29 years as a career firefighter in Providence (retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief), as well as volunteer and paid-on-call experience.

He is the author of three books: Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services (2006, 2nd ed. 2011, 3rd ed. 2014, 4th ed. 2022), Managing Disciplinary Challenges in the Fire Service (2026), and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook (2007), and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine, writing the Fire Law column.

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2 Comments