Mitchel v. Osterhoudt, 8:96CV489 (D. Neb. 1997), 8:96CV489.
| Decision Date | 01 November 1997 |
| Docket Number | 8:96CV489. |
| Parties | JANICE K. MITCHEL, Plaintiff, v. STANLEY R. OSTERHOUDT, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Nebraska |
This matter is before me pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and the consent of the parties on the motion of defendant Stanley Osterhoudt for summary judgment based on qualified immunity (#29). After carefully considering the parties' briefs and evidentiary materials (#31 and #36), I find that the motion should be granted.
Defendant Osterhoudt has also filed a motion to quash and stay discovery (#___). Because I find that plaintiff's claims against defendant Osterhoudt should be dismissed, I shall grant the motion to quash and stay discovery.
Approximately 25 years ago, plaintiff was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune system disorder. Plaintiff worked for the Johnson County Sheriff's Office from 1977 until her employment was terminated on May 29, 1995 by the Johnson County Sheriff, defendant Stanley Osterhoudt. Plaintiff's appeal to the Johnson County Grievance Board was denied.
Plaintiff filed this action on September 4, 1996, contending that the termination and grievance denial were in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the equal protection clause of U.S. Const. amend. XIV. Defendant Osterhoudt has filed a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity.
The court finds that the following facts are uncontroverted and constitute the material facts upon which a resolution of these issues must be premised. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e).
This court has subject matter jurisdiction over this case under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a).
At all times relevant to plaintiff's complaint, defendant Stanley Osterhoudt was the duly elected sheriff of Johnson County, Nebraska.
Plaintiff was employed as a dispatcher/jailer at the Johnson County Sheriff's Office when Osterhoudt became sheriff. After Osterhoudt took office, he approved a policies and procedures manual for the Johnson County Sheriff's Office. Plaintiff received her copy of the manual on January 10, 1995. The manual included a job description for the dispatcher/jailer job held by the plaintiff, including the following responsibilities:
1. Taking and relaying accurate information as quickly as possible for the various agencies within Johnson County;
2. Supervising Johnson County Jail inmates, including their admission, orientation and release, as well as providing general security in the Johnson County Jail;
3. Radio dispatching, including 911 responses for the County's fire departments, rescue squads and law enforcement agencies;
4. Receiving and making radio transmissions for Johnson and Pawnee Counties;
5. Maintaining accurate radio and telephone logs for all communications to and from the Sheriff's Office;
6. Monitoring the National Law Teletype System, including retrieving information such as driver's license histories and criminal background checks at the request of law enforcement; and
7. Making sure that Johnson County Jail inmates receive required services such as laundry, telephone calls, mail, medications, meals, etc.
After defendant Osterhoudt took office, he noticed that plaintiff was having trouble fulfilling her job responsibilities as a dispatcher/jailer. Defendant was specifically concerned about the following matters:
1. Plaintiff's personnel file contained two letters criticizing and complaining about plaintiff's dispatching skills. One letter from the Johnson County Hospital indicated that on numerous occasions, plaintiff had not notified the hospital of the number of injured persons being brought by the rescue squad. As a result, when the patients arrived at the hospital, the hospital had inadequate staff on hand to care for the patients. A letter from the Tecumseh Rescue Squad complained that plaintiff was taking too long to dispatch the squad and that plaintiff was not giving the squad the information it needed to effectively respond to 911 calls.
2. Plaintiff was not keeping accurate logs of telephone calls that she was supposed to make and the telephone calls that she received during her shift. The radio logs kept by the plaintiff during her shift were also inaccurate and incomplete. Plaintiff was not accurately dispatching information that came into the Sheriff's Office. Plaintiff was also slow in relaying information that came into the Sheriff's Office. Defendant knew from his training and experience as a law enforcement officer that promptly dispatching emergency medical personnel can be the difference between life and death for someone in dire need of medical assistance. He also knew that, if a law enforcement officer does not receive quick, accurate information about crimes in progress or someone's criminal background, citizens can be endangered, suspects can escape from the jurisdiction, and valuable evidence of criminal activity can be lost.
3. During plaintiff's shifts, she frequently failed to file updated driver's license information and motor vehicle registrations. As a result, other staff members were having to assume plaintiff's share of the filing duties in addition to performing their own job responsibilities.
4. Plaintiff ignored defendant's instructions and called in another dispatcher to complete her shift when she was not feeling well. Defendant had told plaintiff that, if she wanted to leave work early, she should let him know and he would complete her shift to save overtime pay for a dispatcher.
On March 14, 1995, defendant met with plaintiff to discuss his concerns about her job performance. He showed plaintiff the letters from the Johnson County Hospital and the Tecumseh Rescue Squad and discussed the problems he had noticed with her radio logs, telephone logs, and dispatching. Defendant stressed that it was essential that information received by and dispatched from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office be accurately and promptly conveyed because emergency service providers must have reliable information from the dispatcher in order to effectively provide services to the community. Defendant Osterhoudt also told plaintiff that he was disappointed she had not notified him that she needed to leave work as she had been instructed, and that he expected her to follow orders in the future.
During the March 14, 1995 meeting, plaintiff explained that she and her husband were having financial problems and that her concerns about her home life were causing her stress and interfering with her ability to perform her job. Defendant told plaintiff to take two weeks off from work to tend to her family's financial matters so she could return to work and focus on her job.
Defendant also decided that he would ease the plaintiff's workload by periodically scheduling her to work the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift. This shift is the least busy shift for the dispatcher/jailer employees. The jail inmates are under lockdown overnight and far fewer communications go through the Sheriff's Office during that period than during the day time. Defendant hoped that by moving Plaintiff to the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift, plaintiff would have the opportunity to stay caught up on her radio and telephone logs and to stay caught up on her filing duties. Additionally, the light work load would allow the plaintiff time to work on becoming a more accurate and prompt dispatcher.
Plaintiff returned to work on March 29, 1995 and complained about having to work the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift because she did not like the hours. After March 29, 1995, defendant noticed that plaintiff was still having problems performing the essential functions of the dispatcher/jailer job. Defendant noted the following problems:
1. During April 1995, plaintiff was having problems handling the stress of the dispatcher/jailer job. For example, she had problems running equipment such as the teletype system, typewriter, radio, and fax machine. When the Sheriff's office purchased a new typewriter to replace a 25-year-old typewriter, plaintiff complained about having to use the new typewriter. The dispatcher/jailer employees had to learn to run modern office equipment such as a computer and fax machine in order to be able to access criminal history databases and effectively and rapidly communicate with other law enforcement agencies. Plaintiff complained about having to use the computer and had difficulties using the equipment.
2. On April 23, 1995, plaintiff paged the Tecumseh Rescue Squad to answer a call in the district of the Sterling Rescue Squad. The Tecumseh Rescue Squad had to travel eight miles to respond to the call. The Sterling Rescue Squad would have had to travel only four miles to respond.
3. On April 28, 1995, at 11:15 p.m., the sheriff's office received a telephone call from a Johnson County resident reporting that a vehicle had pulled up at a camp site and gunshots were fired from the vehicle. Plaintiff took eight minutes to dispatch an officer to the site.
4. On April 30, 1995, plaintiff had a black-out spell while she was with an inmate. Defendant was concerned about this incident because some of the Johnson County inmates are violent or pose escape risks. If plaintiff had been alone with the prisoner at the time, the prisoner could have attacked her or escaped.
5. Plaintiff had trouble retrieving a driver's history from the computer system. A county judge had requested the information for use in a sentencing hearing. Defendant had to send a deputy sheriff to the office to retrieve the information. The deputy had no problem retrieving the information from the computer.
6. On May 8, 1995, during the 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. shift, severe weather developed in the Johnson County area. At 7:45 p.m., there were reports of funnel clouds. At 8:15 plaintiff called in another dispatcher, J.J....
To continue reading
Request your trial