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Genesee County taxpayer bill on park ranger lawsuit: $400,000
By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com
on September 27, 2012 at 7:30 AM, updated September 27, 2012 at 2:08 PM
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- The county has agreed to pay a former and current park ranger $400,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed they were disciplined for ticketing a politically connected man.
The county Board of Commissioners agreed to the settlement last week, and Interim Corporation Counsel Celeste Bell said Wednesday that $350,000 of the settlement would come from county funds with $50,000 coming from a secondary insurance plan.
The tickets were issued in June 2011 against Aonie Gilcrest, husband of Frances Gilcreast, president of the Flint branch of the NAACP. The rangers claimed Aoine Gilcrest failed to yield to a firetruck that had its lights and siren activated and initially failed to stop for police.
In April, the state Attorney General's Office ruled there was "no legitimate basis" for pursuing the charges against Gilcreast after prosecutors in Genesee and Ingham counties recused themselves from the case.
"We were in a no-win situation," said county board Chairman Jamie Curtis. "You try to make the best decision with the least liability."
Tom Pabst, who represented rangers Michael O’Leary and Adam Thrash in the Whistleblower Protection Act complaint, said the settlement shows "these guys did nothing wrong."
Pabst pointed the finger at Parks Director Amy McMillan in a written statement for trying "to get ... O’Leary to void the ticket, claiming he was out of his assigned area and didn’t handle the whole matter well.
"McMillan is not a trained police officer, and never went through the police academy that police officers normally go through," Pabst said of her involvement.
"
I think the worst thing that happened was theese guys were accused of being incompetent cops and being racist -- like they were hassling Mr. Gilcreast because he was black," Pabst said.
McMillan's office referred questions to attorneys involved in the settling the case. The Flint Journal could not reach Aoine Gilcrest for comment.
McMillan has said previously that the discipline against the rangers was a direct result of their conduct after making the Gilcrest traffic stop -- not because they issued tickets.
Curtis said there were mistakes made that led to the situation and there have been policy and personnel changes in the parks system based on lessons learned from the case.
"It's a shame it cost what it did. We paid the price to learn," Curtis said.
Pabst said Thrash was suspended without pay for 10 days while O'Leary was fired after the incident. A county Sheriff's Department paramedic deputy who authorized park rangers to stop Gilcreast was also suspended without pay for 10 days.
Richard L. Cunningham, criminal division chief for the Attorney General Bill Schuette, said in a June letter, "After reviewing the findings of our attorney, and considering the statements made by the witnesses, I have concluded that there is no legitimate basis for further action."
"Within the scope of prosecutorial discretion, I am thus closing our file without recommending any criminal charges."
rjriley5000
It seems to me that the county should recover all the costs from those who tried to circumvent the law.
john
How soon can we remove these incompetant county comissioners from their positions.
Politically Correct
The first blame needs to go to Aonie Gilcrest who ran home to his momma without stopping and then pulled out the race card.....
rjriley5000 and acrosstheoceannow like this.
michrick57
Are tax payers the only one that are gonna pay for this bad management that cost the city 400k? These officers were illegally reprimanded for doing their job. Sounds like one of them is still without a job. In the business world heads would roll if management cost a company 400k. I guess in government you just write it off as a learning mistake. A 400k learning mistake. That the tax payers will pay for.
morbiddcorpse, WOW55 and Steve S. like this.
mackatron
This expensive incident is just another in a long line of crap poor job performance over the years from Parks Clown Chief, Amy McMillan, which has cost the taxpayers of Genesee County dearly. Amy Mc Millan has been and will continue to be a poor excuse for an admonistrative employee and if gutless Joey Krapohl can't fire her, then somebody in possession of 2 brain cells in Genesee County's personnel office should. We all know Amy violated the U.s. constitution when she told the petition taker to get his butt to the back of parks property to legally collect petitions signitures. She was reprimanded for bringing her pack of dogs to work, she was popped for violating the purchase policy for Genesee County and her attitude and treatment of other county emplyees has been reprehensible. What does it take to fire this clown or better yet what does she have to prevent her immediate dismissal from being TERMINATED forcontined incompetance and insubbordination?
Imjustsayin likes this.
burtonguy
I've met Amy, and she seems like a very nice person, but it seems she is in over her head on this job.
Steve S.
Personel offices generally do not have the authority to fire any one. McMillian reports to the County Parks Commission.
offdahook
This is just another example of the political corruption in our county government, where “who you know” becomes more important than supporting the law enforcement officers hired to protect the public. All involved should be embarrassed by this blatant political cronyism. Sheriff Pickell should apologize to the officers involved , or is he the only one worthy of an apology!
jacobsmith
Parks Director Amy McMillan should have to make restitution since this was her responsibility. This happened on her watch, her practices and with her employees. She should be removed from the position and replaced by an official that will ensure proper training and guidance are available.
WOW55 and Imjustsayin like this.
Steve S.
At some point there needs to be non-police supervision of a police force. If not then police may feel that they report to no one except themselves. As far as I know there is a chief ranger. Parks Director McMillian should make her case to the chief ranger not to the officer. As far as I am concerned their should be atleast a reprimand in her file for interfering in a police matter by pressing the officers/rangers directly for them to withdraw the ticket.
Sheriff Pickel should also be reprimand for supending a the deputy for authorizing them to persue Gilcrest (or Gilcreast, which is it as his name is spelled both ways) as that seems to be totally politically motivated given that all the Genesee and Ingham counties prosecutors recused themselves.
I can't believe that the AG office won't inforce the ticket. Since they sued, the rangers continue to support that they saw Gilcrest drive fail to yield for the fire truck. It is also undisputed that he failed to stop when being pursued by the rangers and would not come out and forced the Sheriff's deputy to go in and arrest them. No seems to dispute these facts. So who are these "witnesses" that dispute this now? |
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