Cignetti v. Healy
| Citation | 89 F.Supp.2d 106 |
| Decision Date | 21 March 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. A. 96-11427-MEL.,CIV. A. 96-11427-MEL. |
| Parties | Peter V. CIGNETTI, III, Plaintiff, v. Robert W. HEALY, Michael P. Gardner, Kevin J. Fitzgerald, Walter J. Ellis, John J. Gelinas, Gerald R. Reardon, Jeffrey W. Ashe, Thomas F. Cahill, and City of Cambridge, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
George C. Deptula, Boston, MA, Richard D. Clarey, Law Office of Richard D. Clarey, Boston, MA, for Peter V. Cignetti.
Joan M. Griffin, Casner & Edwards, Boston, MA, for Robert W. Healy, Michael P. Gardner, Kevin J. Fitzgerald, John J. Gelinas, Gerald R. Reardon, Jeffrey W. Ashe, Thomas F. Cahill.
Arthur J. Goldberg, City Hall, Law Dept., Cambridge, MA, for City of Cambridge.
MEMORANDUM AND DECISION
Peter Cignetti, a Captain in the Cambridge Fire Department, brings this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, alleging primarily that the City of Cambridge and officials of the City and of the Cambridge Fire Department engaged in a pattern of harassment and coercion in retaliation for his exercise of his First Amendment right as a public employee to speak on matters of public concern. He also asserts violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 12, §§ 11H and 11I, and common law claims of abuse of process and libel against certain defendants. The individual defendants now move for summary judgment as to the claims against them. The motion is granted.
The complexity of the facts alleged and the unprecedented number of legal claims made necessitates the tedious treatment that follows:
Cignetti was hired by the Cambridge Fire Department (the "CFD") in September 1980 and, since April 1991, has held the rank of Captain. He considers himself "a vocal representative of the Cambridge Firefighter's Union" and has also been active in local community affairs in Cambridge.1
He alleges that while performing his duties as a Union representative and engaging in local activities he came into conflict with the defendants, Robert Healy, the Cambridge City Manager; Michael Gardner, Personnel Director of the City; Kevin Fitzgerald, Chief of the CFD; and Walter Ellis, Assistant Chief of the CFD, over a variety of public policy matters. For example, he asserts that, in 1992, in a debate before the Cambridge City Council he publicly expressed his opposition to Healy and Gardner's proposal to have City employees pay a portion of their health insurance premiums. He further avers that Healy and Gardner opposed his efforts to extend benefits for City employees "beyond same sex partners to opposite sex partners and extended family living in the employee's household." He claims that his differences with Healy and Gardner as to the need for civil service reform were reported in the local newspaper.2 In addition, he alleges that he differed with Fitzgerald and Ellis in connection with Fire Department related issues such as staffing levels, conditions of fire stations and apparatus, collective bargaining, the need for protocol in training concerning hose repair, the filing of injury reports, and district boundaries.
In July 1993, two incidents led to the disciplinary charges against Cignetti, which are at the center of this suit. First, on July 7, 1993, Cignetti took an engine company and a ladder company out of service under circumstances in which he and his subordinate, Lieutenant Jeffrey Ashe,3 quarreled as to who was assigned to which company. The companies were returned to service within eleven minutes. Second, on July 13, 1993, Cignetti failed to report to the Harvard Science Center to relieve the previous shift, which was responding to a bomb threat. Cignetti maintains that he had advised Fire Alarm that his company was in the station and available to serve as relief, but due to a miscommunication never received an order to relieve from Deputy Gerald Reardon,4 the incident commander.
On July 12, Deputy Chief John Gelinas, the deputy in charge of the Division on the evening of July 7, submitted charges against Cignetti to Chief Fitzgerald in connection with the Cignetti-Ashe dispute. That report alleged that Cignetti had to be ordered twice to put the companies back in service before he complied. It differed from a July 7 report prepared by Gelinas which merely recommended that "both officers be sent to a remedial officer's training class."
Fitzgerald formally preferred charges against Cignetti concerning the July 7 incident in a letter dated July 16, 1993, alleging, inter alia, conduct unbecoming, neglect of, evading or shirking duty, and failing to note journal entries upon coming on duty. No formal charges were asserted against Ashe. Separate disciplinary charges relating to the July 13 incident were later preferred by Fitzgerald against Cignetti.
Fitzgerald held a hearing on the charges on July 26, 1993, at which Cignetti was represented by union counsel, Attorney Neil Rossman. Cignetti denied any wrongdoing, but on the advice of counsel agreed to accept a three day suspension to settle the charges for the July 7 incident and a letter of reprimand to be expunged after one year to settle the charges stemming from the July 13 incident.
On July 30, 1993, Fitzgerald issued a General Order informing Fire Department personnel of the disciplinary action against Cignetti. The General Order stated that on July 7 Cignetti had without just cause left a large area without fire protection or EMS coverage, and that on July 13, he had shown a lack of good judgment, a complete lack of leadership, and total disregard for the members of his company by failing to relieve them. In addition, it instructed company commanders to read the order to every member of their company at roll call.
Considering the publication of the General Order a violation of the settlement, on August 2, 1993, Cignetti appealed the three-day suspension to City Manager Robert Healy, who referred the matter to City Personnel Director Gardner. On August 3, 1993, Fitzgerald appointed Deputy Chief Francis Murphy to investigate the July 7 Cignetti-Ashe dispute. In his August 5 report, Murphy recommended that Ashe be reprimanded because he "used poor judgment by failing to record the duty assignments," but suggested no discipline for Cignetti.
After Cignetti appealed the suspension, Fitzgerald forwarded a number of documents and reports concerning both the July 7 and July 13 incidents to City Manager Healy, including the two reports written by Gelinas. However, Cignetti's written accounts of the events were not included in the package. Nor did the package contain Murphy's report, the report filed by Ashe, or the subsequent reports obtained from Lieutenants Robert Scott and James Harkins, who witnessed the July 7 incident.
Sometime after the July 7 incident, Chief Fitzgerald directed Thomas Cahill of Fire Alarm to make a cassette tape recording of relevant radio and telephone communications between Engine 3 and Fire Alarm from that evening. Cahill testified that, based on Fitzgerald's instructions, he searched through the various tracks of the master tape for the requested conversations and recorded them on a cassette tape. Similarly, after the July 13 incident, Fitzgerald asked Cahill to record relevant communications from that evening as well and Cahill added the second set of communications to the tape.
In the meantime, by letter dated August 4, 1993, Gardner notified Cignetti, that it was the City's position that by appealing the suspension, Cignetti was in fact renouncing the settlement agreement. As a result, the letter explained that
the City [would] proceed to a full hearing, where the issues [would] be not only whether there [was] just cause for the initial suspension imposed by the Chief, but also whether there [was] just cause for any further discipline up to and including further suspension, demotion or discharge.
By letter dated August 31, 1993, Healy formally notified Cignetti of the pending disciplinary charges and that the City "[wa]s contemplating ... suspension without pay for up to six months and/or demotion in rank." The letter scheduled a hearing for September 13, 1993, but gave Cignetti the option of submitting the matter directly to the Civil Service Commission.
Cignetti accepted the City's offer of submitting the matter to the Civil Service Commission. A hearing was conducted before Administrative Law Judge Jaye Whittier over the course of five days. Cignetti was represented by Attorney Harold Lichten Attorney Philip Collins represented the City of Cambridge. Ashe, Gelinas, Reardon, Cahill, and Fitzgerald testified at the hearing. Cignetti alleges that each of these five witnesses "willfully misrepresented, in [their] sworn testimony, the events of July 7 and July 13" and that Fitzgerald "knew or should have known that the sworn testimony of Ashe, Gelinas, Reardon, and Cahill willfully misrepresented events which occurred on July 7 and July 13." Healy, Gardner and Ellis did not testify, but, Cignetti maintains, "knew or should have known that sworn testimony was given by City witnesses which willfully and maliciously misrepresented the events which occurred on July 7 ... and July 13."
At the hearing, the City introduced the composite tape recording which had been prepared by Cahill at Fitzgerald's request. Cignetti alleges that all of the defendants "knew or should have known that the `composite' tape ... was willfully and maliciously altered and edited to misrepresent" the events of July 7 and July 13.
Judge Whittier ultimately found "no just cause" to discipline Cignetti and her recommendation was adopted by the Commission.
During the pendency of the disciplinary proceeding, on October 14, 1994, Cignetti underwent surgery for hand injuries. He was pronounced fit for limited duty on April 24, 1995, and served until September 8, 1995 ...
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