Suit over critical emails, false subpoenas is settled

[Guest guest]

I bet if you take his part of the settlement and divide by 5 he's still

ahead of the game salary wise.

LNM

_http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--subpoenaedemails011_

(http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--subpoenaedemails011)

8jan18,0,832631,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Suit over critical emails, false subpoenas is settled

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN

Associated Press Writer

January 18, 2007, 6:43 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A paramedic will receive $225,000 to settle his lawsuit

claiming town officials violated his rights when they issued criminal

subpoenas to identify him as an author of anonymous critical e-mails and

suspended him, according to attorneys and court documents.

The suit filed in 2005 in U.S. District Court was settled at a conference

Thursday. Hugh Skerker had claimed, along with volunteer emergency medical

technician Gardner, that officials in the Albany suburb of Colonie

retaliated against them and violated their rights to due process and

freedom of speech.

They sought unspecified damages from the town and five officials,

including a police investigator, claiming they issued false criminal

subpoenas to make Time Warner Cable identify the two RoadRunner

subscribers when there was no criminal case.

" The payment itself is an admission of liability, " said attorney

Luibrand, who represented both men. Gardner's case was settled earlier for

$29,000 plus legal fees, he said.

Skerker agreed to resign as a salaried town paramedic and agreed not to

reapply for another Colonie emergency services position for five years,

said attorney Edwin Tobin, who represented Colonie. " In my opinion there

have been mistakes made by both sides in this matter, " he said.

In response to the subpoenas, Time Warner Cable had disclosed the men's

names without informing them. The Internet service provider was not a

defendant in the case.

Mark Harrad, spokesman for Time Warner Cable, has said their general

policy is to refuse requests to identify their residential Internet

customers because of privacy concerns. However, they probably get more

than 100 subpoenas a month, mostly in civil cases, and the company

complies with legal court and administrative orders, he said.

Skerker, a 48-year-old paramedic in Colonie, was suspended for three

months in 2004, accused of disseminating confidential information through

the e-mails. Gardner, 54, a part-time volunteer emergency medical

technician, was dismissed.

The men were simply " whistleblowers " and Colonie officials acknowleged

they had done nothing criminal, Luibrand said. Skerker has taken a new job

elsewhere, he said.

The anonymous e-mails to Town Supervisor Brizzell in late 2003 and

early 2004 alleged deficiencies in personnel, equipment and treatment in

Colonie's emergency services department.

" The town has already acknowledged that it made a mistake, the town

attorneys, in how they issued the subpoena to find out who was sending

those inappropriate e-mails, " Tobin said. " There is an appropriate

subpoena to do that. ... an administrative subpoena, that would be the way

to go. "

Louis N. Molino, Sr., CET

FF/NREMT-B/FSI/EMSI

Freelance Consultant/Trainer/Author/Journalist/Fire Protection Consultant

Buddhist philosopher at-large

LNMolino@...

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