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Read original WTTG-TV story & documents

When I first saw the story above a little more than a year ago, I thought it was unfair to the firefighter who was featured, and missed the real story by failing to track down the people who should be answering the questions. In general, I thought it was a poor job done by the reporter on what was and is a legitimate story.

The person featured in the story is DC Fire & EMS Department Lieutenant Richard Lehan. The report focused on Lt. Lehan's income from the District of Columbia. He was the fire department's top money maker in the overtime category. Similar stories have been done in many cities.

Lehan's feelings about the report were obviously a lot stronger than mine. He filed a defamation lawsuit against WTTG-TV. DC Superior Court Judge Rufus G. King III has now dismissed that suit based on the District of Columbia's new anti-SLAPP law.

SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuits against public participation". Wikipedia has one of the clearest explanations of a SLAPP I could find:

 A lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

Anti-SLAPP laws are generally intended to protect a citizen's right of free speech and, as in this case, have also been used by the news media to do the same.

Richard Lehan's lawsuit is the first dismissal under DC's law.

Drew E. Shenkman and Charles D. Tobin, with Holland and Knight LLP, have written an article about this case. I have forwarded it to FireLawBlog.com's Curt Varone to see if I can encourage him to translate it into English from legalese in one of his columns. Actually it is not that bad, but Curt, a lawyer and firefighter, will do a better job explaining what this all really means. In the meantime here's an excerpt from the article:

In June 2011, Lehan sued for defamation and defamation per se. He alleged that the station's figures were inaccurate and that the report's use of phrases like "racked up" and "month-after-month" were defamatory. He also alleged that the report that he and his brother controlled the assignment of overtime was false.

The station filed a special motion to dismiss under the District's anti-SLAPP statute, D.C. Code §16-5501, et seq., enacted in March 2011. D.C. is the 29th jurisdiction with a law permitting early challenges to SLAPP lawsuits. Under the D.C. statute, if a defendant establishes the lawsuit arose out of "acts in furtherance of the right of advocacy on issues of public interest," the burden shifts to the plaintiff to demonstrate a "likelihood of success" on the merits. If the plaintiff fails, the statute requires the court to dismiss the lawsuit and the judge may award reasonable attorneys' fees.

Now, my complaints about this story have nothing to do with defamation, though I thought there was a fair amount of innuendo with no smoking gun to back it up. If I had been doing the story, I'm sure I too would have featured Lt. Lehan, the top overtime earner. That's a fact important to the story, especially since his later earnings appeared to violate a DC law limiting the amount of overtime a firefighter or police officer can make.

But since there was no indication in reporter Roby Chavez's story (Chavez is no longer with the station) that Lt Lehan was putting in for overtime he didn't earn, my questions would have been directed elsewhere. Instead of spending a lot of time staking out the quarters of Engine 30 trying to get Lt. Lehan to talk, I would have been tracking down, and if necessary staking out, former Chief Dennis Rubin and his assistant chiefs who were ultimately responsible for how the overtime money was spent. They are the people who should have been answering the questions from the reporter and those raised by the council member interviewed in the report.

It isn't just DC. I have brought this same point up many times before elsewhere in the country. If the firefighter or other public servant is legitimately being paid for hours worked, the focus should not be on the person receiving the fat paycheck, but rather the person writing it.

Obviously Judge King has judged that this TV news story was not defamation. That's out of my expertise (though, when I first heard about the lawsuit from a friend, I expressed doubts about its success). I will, however, judge that it was a poor and misguided journalistic effort. 

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have known Lt. Lehan and his brother Ed (also mentioned in the report) for a long time. I like both of them and they both have been kind to me through the years. That said, to my knowledge, I have never talked to either one of them about the story or the lawsuit, and am basing my opinion solely on my experience as a TV reporter who covered the fire service.

In addition, I have some very good friends (or at least did) at WTTG-TV. The station has some wonderful TV journalists on its staff. My comments focus solely on this one story and do not reflect on the news operation as a whole.

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Make sure you check out the Arrest Dustin Anderson Facebook group

This story from last June should have made my 2011 year end review and won a STATty for the biggest loser caught on video. We featured Dustin Anderson's confrontation with a Vancouver firefighter during the rioting that occurred after the Canucks were defeated in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Anderson was interviewed by CBC News after the video developed quite an audience and said:

"I went to him for help because I had been pepper sprayed. He told me to go home… He was trying to get in my face."

Anderson will now have the opportunity to tell his story to the judge after being charged with hitting the firefighter.

Dustin Anderson also told CBC News in June that he felt "horrible" and that he can't leave his home "because everybody recognizes me". The charges are bringing a new round of publicity for Anderson which may help everyone by keeping the man home bound again. Make sure you check out the Arrest Dustin Anderson Facebook group for more on this upstanding citizen.

From GlobalTVBC.com:

21-year-old Dustin Anderson of Burnaby is facing charges of participating in a riot and assault.

Anderson was the target of intense anger on social media after a video of him allegedly assaulting a Vancouver firefighter surfaced.

A Facebook group entitled “Arrest Dustin Anderson” has over 2,300 members.

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Former East Spencer fire chief Shane Cranfield.

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Previous coverage of this story

More from WSOC-TV

Thirty-seven-year-old Shane Cranfield, who was a part-time employee of the East Spencer Fire Department in North Carolina, was fired yesterday. In addition, 29-year-old Assistant Chief Allen Carlyle, a former chief of the department, has been told not to return as a volunteer. This comes after the incident last month where police say the men shocked an18-year-old firefighter with a Taser nine times during a fire department Christmas party.

Cranfield and Carlyle are both facing assault charges. A town police officer who allowed his Taser to be used in the incident resigned and is also facing criminal charges. 

Here's more from Karissa Minn at the Salisbury Post:

In a dismissal letter to Cranfield, Town Administrator Macon Sammons Jr. said leaders must serve as role models and set standards. They need “the wisdom, the courage and the judgment” to guide others in the right direction, he said.

“Instead, as our fire chief, you were the ringleader of an incident which created community disdain toward the reputation of our fire department and a major source of embarrassment to the town,” Sammons wrote.

A similar letter to Carlyle is more frank.

“Your behavior in this incident was abusive and totally unacceptable,” Sammons wrote. “Further, we believe that you have become a negative influence within our fire department.”

Former assistant chief and chief Allen Carlyle.

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From The Commercial Appeal:

(Firefighter/paramedic) Avis Langford-Brannon, (Battalion Chief) Beverly Prye and (Battalion Chief) Sandra Richards have been indicted on charges of forgery, tampering with evidence and aggravated perjury.

All three — employees of the Memphis Fire Department — have surrendered to authorities. All three were jailed on bond of $20,000 each; Richards remained in jail Sunday.

From WMC-TV:

Forgery charges have been filed relating to the will of the late state representative Ulysses Jones, Jr.

In May, the fight over Jones' will ended with a Probate Court judge ruling that the signature on the document was not Jones' and therefore not valid.

The fake will had left the bulk of the estate to a woman he lived with for the past 18 years.

From an article by Bonny Kinney WREG:

According to the document, Jones left his estate, worth about $100,000, to his longtime girlfriend, Sandra Richards.  Jones and Richards had both worked as Battalion Chiefs within the fire department.

Jones' adult children later took legal action saying that the will was a phony.  A judge agreed earlier this year.

From City of Berea website.

Read lawsuit

This is truly a fascinating and different story out of Berea, Ohio. It is a bit complicated and required two readings of James McCarty's article for The Plain Dealer before I understood it. Let me try to explain it chronologically.

In 2010, Williams Phelps, a 17-year veteran of the Berea Fire Department who is black, was offered and turned down a promotion to lieutenant. The reason Phelps gave in a lawsuit recently filed in federal court, is that the promotion, at the time, was based on race and not merit. In that suit, William Phelps refers to the interview for the job he had with Safety Director Kenneth Adams, who is also black. From The Plain Dealer:

"If I promote you first, you need to be able to deal with the situation of being promoted ahead of two candidates who scored higher than you," Phelps quoted Adams as saying. He went on to quote Adams as saying that if he didn't promote Phelps, "people in the community" would ask why he didn't give the job to the black candidate. 

Adams rejected Phelps' version of the process, and denied making the statements quoted in Phelps' lawsuit.

This year there have been two more firefighters promoted to lieutenant. Though Phelps says his exam scores placed him in one of the top two in line for those jobs, he was not offered a promotion. Phelps contends now that the promotion is based solely on merit and not the color of his skin, he wasn't offered the job. He believes he was passed over as retaliation for what happened last year.

In addition, Firefighter/Paramedic Phelps, has been one of the faces of the Vote No on Issue 2 campaign in Ohio. Issue 2, which will be decided on Tuesday, is a referendum on Senate Bill 5, backed by Gov. John Kasich, limiting collective bargaining rights for public employees. Phelps lent his face to the ad below that has been seen on billboards around the state.

KDKA-TV describes it as a legal battle pitting the City of Pittsburgh versus the City of Pittsburgh. In the story above you will learn that some city fire trucks were ticketed for parking at spaces reserved for the mayor and City Council members on Tuesday. The firefighters had stopped by for their flu shots. A police officer, aware of regular complaints by the city officials about people who park in their spaces, slapped tickets on the rigs.

Here's more from KDKA TV:

The trucks came from the Homewood station with full crews, and according to their union attorney with the best intentions.

“They had parked outside the City County Building, they were supposed to get a flu shot to avoid sick days,” said Josh Bloom, the firefighters’ attorney. “As they went in… the fire trucks and fire engines were given parking tickets.”

“I suppose the city will have to go to court against itself,” said Bloom. “The firefighters do not own the fire trucks, so the city was written a ticket today.”

A possible solution to this problem emerges in the video below that shows a Montreal police officer ticketing a fire engine parked in front of a hydrant (police NEVER do that). But I am not sure I would recommend that firefighters respond this way to a parking ticket (but if you are planning to do so, please alert me so I can bring my video camera). The clip is one of a series of videos involving "firefighters" and a Candid Camera type of approach.

Previous coverage of this story here & here

In May we told you about an ugly incident that occurred during a wetdown on October 9 last year at the Sea Bright Fire Department in New Jersey (video above is of the wetdown but not the fight). One firefighter accused two other firefighters, who are brothers and officers in the department, of assault. Peter Lang IV, age 33, and Steven Lang, 25, also accused 28-year-old Justin Hughes of attacking them. The Lang brothers, who had been scheduled to be promoted (Peter to assistant chief and Steven to second lieutenant), also accused Hughes of assault. The pending trial delayed those promotions and threatened to keep the Langs from ever being officers in the department.

On Wednesday the trio heard their fate from Judge James Berube. He found all three guilty of assault and fined them $500 and ordered them to perform 100 hours of community service, which could be accomplished by their work as volunteer firefighters. The judge also arranged it so the brothers are not barred from promotion.

In addition, the judge believes that Hughes was the instigator of the second and more serious of two fights by saying that Steven Lang, who had served as a Marine in Iraq, should have been killed there. According to RedBankGreen.com, which has been following this story, the judge said, “Your words were so serious, so sensitive… they are so inflammatory that they constituted provocation.”

Here's more from reporter John T. Ward:

Berube’s ruling came after municipal Prosecutor Mike Halfacre, who also serves as Fair Haven mayor, backed away from a demand that the Langs be barred for life from serving as officers.

Though he said the pair had “disgraced and discredited” the Sea Bright Fire Department, and though they appeared to have rallied a “good-old-boy network” of support that included what he termed “suspect” letters of support, Halfacre said he would not press for forefeiture because state Department of Health and Human Services rules would have mandated the Langs lose their EMT licenses as well.

“That’s where I took pause,” he told Berube.

That's Daniel Schmidt on the left in the picture taken by Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff's Office after Schmidt's arrest. The picture on the right was a self portrait by Schmidt as he modeled a helmet from Regional Fire Rescue in Casa Grande.

The picture on the right lead directly to the picture on the left being taken. It is another story of someone being so obsessed with letting the world know their every move through social media they lose common sense (not that there appears there was much there to start with).

Here's some background from KSAZ-TV:

Last Sunday, four Kenwood radios, two pick-head axes, a helmet and an LED flashlight were taken from a Regional Fire Rescue fire engine that was parked outside at a fire station in Casa Grande. The stolen items were valued at $1,600.

On Monday, Pinal County Sheriff's detectives distributed flyers throughout the neighborhood in hopes of catching the person responsible.

Deputies didn't have to do much more than that because someone phoned Regional Fire Rescue Chief Steve Kerber that they knew who did the crime. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out. News reports indicate the 23-year-old Schmidt used texting and his Facebook status to let his friends know that he stole gear from the fire department and provided the photographic evidence to prove it. 

According to the reports, Schmidt told deputies he was drunk when he stole the stuff from the fire truck. But my question is was he sober when he posted it the evidence on Facebook?

Sunday's rant by Dave over police vs. photographer confrontations

Previous coverage & discussion of cameras at incident scenes can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here

This may be a very disappointing "must see video" for many of you. No real action and it isn't a fire. But it is exactly what I needed to get me out of my funk after viewing the series of videos I posted Sunday of police officers around the country who have a funny interpretation of protecting and defending the Constitution.

The video posted to YouTube last November stars Badge #1093 of the Oceanside (CA) Police Department, Cpl. Matthew J. Lyons. I urge all of you to watch how Cpl. Lyons reacts to a man carrying a camera who records the entire interaction with the officer. Besides the camera in his left hand, the man, who only gives his name as Jeremy, has a gun on his side.

Listen to Cpl. Lyons' words and watch his actions. The officer is also a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Marines. He knows and respects Jeremy's right to not only carry an unconcealed, unloaded weapon, but to also carry and use a camera that is not concealed.

Now, compare this to what you saw from the Suffolk County (NY) Police Department sergeant (below) who arrested a credentialed news photographer on Friday. Or the officers you see in the other videos I posted on Sunday. If you were a police chief or commanding a squad of officers, would you want on your team cops who only uphold the part of the Constitution that fits their purposes or those who believe in the entire document?

Jeremy, who apparently gets stopped quite a bit with the gun on his belt walking around Oceanside, has recorded other transactions with police officers. They are posted on this YouTube channel. While the other cops aren't quite as charismatic as Cpl. Lyons, the best I can see tell is none of Oceanside's officers seems to get bent out of shape because a citizen has a camera in their face. My guess is that comes from good training.  

Corporal Lyons you are my hero. You not only served our country as a Marine, you serve the citizens of Oceanside by keeping them safe and safeguarding their rights. Thank you Doug Walton for finding this one and sending it our way.

As for the Suffolk County Police Department incident, the charges against the photographer are going to be dropped and it appears training is coming their way (maybe they can fly in Cpl. Lyons as a guest lecturer). Here's the latest in an excerpt from an article by Timothy Bolger at LongIslandPress.com: 

Commissioner Richard Dormer said in a statement Monday that there is an internal review of the incident and all officers will undergo media relations refresher training. The announcement came about an hour after the Press Club of Long Island, a local trade group, called for the charges to be dropped.

“I am working with the Suffolk County District Attorney to have the arrest nullified,” Dormer said. “The police department believes in keeping an open line of communication with the media and we will be reviewing the department’s policy concerning involvement with the news media.”

And in Las Vegas, an internal review of previous case we told you about found that Officer Derek Colling violated several department policies, including using excessive force, when he subdued and arrested a man who was taking video from his own driveway of police responding to a burglary call. Here's the latest story and here is our previous coverage. The video from that incident is below.

William Land, a ten-year veteran of the Memphis Fire Department, is currently out on bond after his arrest during a fire in his Southaven, Mississippi home (Desoto County, a suburb of Memphis) around 4:00 Saturday morning. Land is charged with interfering with firefighters and failing to listen to police officers when his kitchen caught fire. Officers say Land's 14-year-old son tried to interfere with his father's arrest and was also taken into custody.

From WHBQ-TV:

According to police, land was upset about the fire department’s response time, and let them know it. They say he wasn't wearing any protective gear, and yet refused to wait outside.

"They kept asking him to leave and he basically told them he wasn't going to leave." (From Southaven PD's Lt. Mark Little.)

Land faces charges of disorderly conduct and failing to obey a police officer, obstructing operations on a fire scene and disobeying an officer on the scene of a fire. His son faces a juvenile summons for disorderly conduct and failure to obey officers.