Thursday, May 11, 2017

Crystal Eschert v City of Charlotte Trial Ends As Expected

In an embarrassing verdict for the city of Charlotte, a jury Thursday found the Fire Department retaliated against former fire investigator Crystal Eschert for raising questions about the safety of construction work at a new office building, awarding her 1.5 million in damages.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only surprise here is that the jury didnt award more than she asked for. They matched her offer. Should have sued for more...

Anonymous said...

I do wish she had asked for more and I wish when the City employees do corrupt and illegal things they wold have to pay for the judgments PERSONALLY. This was so obvious from the start. Additionally, an attorney who advises to the City to try to defend this indefensible behavior should be FIRED, along with the Fire Chief for the illegal release of personnel files and for whatever else he may have done in connection with this case and possibly with what was initially reported--and did we ever get the final report on the expenditures for his palace of a new office, and all that OT and all that spending that was not proper?

Congratulations Meg Maloney & team, and Congratulations Crystal Eschert

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Meg Maloney and Chrystal Eschert. To the City of Charlotte Mayor and Council. Get out of the New City Managers way and let him do the job you hired him to do, run the city departments. Two independent studies showing retaliation 500,000 dollars, one city manager ran off after three years for doing the right thing but stopped in his tracks because council got involved in personnel issues 800,000 dollars awarding a Female Fire Investigator 1.5 Million Dollars for being targeted a culmination of countless others by the same two people. Priceless. Let Mr Jones do what you wouldn't let Mr Carlee do, lower taxes, get rid of the fire chief and it's a savings of 1.5 million that's one fire company. ????? D fending wrongdoing got too expensive today. It's an election year city council.

Anonymous said...

wouldn't let Carlee do? He's as bad as the rest of them. Just as culpable. Stood there and was responsible for firing Eschert, knowing exactly what happened--as well as responsible for keeping Hannon, knowing exactly what's going on--and keeping Romo as long as he did, knowing exactly what was going on. Carlee did NOTHING but authorize spending money to pay for cover ups like the Van Landingham report and others.

Anonymous said...

The City of Charlotte:What a shit show !!

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS to Meg Maloney, her team and most importantly Crystal Eschert!!!! The City of Charlotte should be embarrassed!!!! You had one person on City Council that stood with her and defended her. Ms Fallon even told them she was a whistleblower. Yet not one other member of the very City Council stood up and supported her. You all should be ashamed and remember it's election year and I'm ready to vote. The city should be making a public apology and giving her that court award at the same time. It's time to start fresh, drain the swap and let's see if Marcus Jones does what's right now that it was ruled in Federal Court that she was right. Jon Hannan needs to go! Bob Hagemann needs to go! Clean it up Charlotte

Anonymous said...

Lets go Marcus Jones, clean up the mess in Charlotte Fire Dept, Those men and women deserve a true leader from outside the city. Phone a Chief in VA and bring them in to do the job. Hannan is a failed leader and a fraud. I'll pay for the uhaul to load is office up and take it to the landfill

Anonymous said...

Bring in those Enron size shredders to city hall and the main fire building

Anonymous said...

During all of those negotiations the city and Haggeman and Hannan are making do not forget the most important item in all of this. Guilty on 5 of 6 counts including Retaliation for reporting Safety Concerns in a City owned building. Spin it into a money thing as the city will do but at the end of the day a dept head and his cronies fired someone for reporting safety concerns. A group of Peers said it, the law said, she was retaliated against. A environment of fear and retaliation exists in the CFD stated by two independent reports, a Federal Jury and countless others. These are facts and they are undisputed. Now the H&H team will try and do some Magic Tricks along with the help of some flunkies and even some CC Members will Spin, and Slide but in the end, MS Eschert was fired for reporting safety concerns, a jury in the Federal Court House said so by unanimous vote, two reports state there is an environment of fear and intimidation in the CFD and the Jury Agreed that she was retaliated against. These are the facts and they are undisputed. Don't forget this over the next couple of days.

Anonymous said...

Hey @ above you nailed it! City was all quick to brag in 2015 that a report showed no direct evidence that retaliation could have taken place, but it was possible. A DOL report favored retaliation against her. But see the difference the city paid for one and the other was independent. So we know Hannan to be a liar and Kinniburgh bailed like a Rodney Monroe magic trick. But when the facts came out the Charlotte Fire Dept retaliated against her. They city of charlotte failed, former city manager failed and all but one council memeber failed to act. Wonder how the town of Matthews feels having a Fire Chief that was apart of a retaliation. Let's see what happens when CIty Council meets again.

Anonymous said...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article150270357.html

Think this sums it up

Anonymous said...

I have been listening to Patrick Cannon on Saturday Mornings the last couple of weeks and a lot of people are saying on the news "the Disgraced Former Mayor". He did the Crime, went to Prison and has returned Humbled. Financially it cost the city far less than this CFD mess and the Mayor Supervises no one. If you want to call him the Disgraced Former Mayor then what do you call the CFD Chief and his Posse, they are like something out of Blazing Saddles and the Mayor and Council are the Johnsons, just letting go on. The difference is Cannon was elected by us, the people and when he screwed up he resigned, Hannan wasn't elected by anyone in this or any community and when he screws up all of our tax dollars defend his wrong doing. Who is really the disgrace here?

Anonymous said...

I see that, yes the Former Mayor obviously used poor judgement. But he was punished and did his time. He like anyone deserves a second chance. Hannan has had chance after chance after chance after chance after chance. He doesn't learn and continues with his venomous rein over CFD. He has cost us the taxpayers a great deal of money. First we had an issue with a Fire dog, he played dumb. Next we had the OT with his old fire trucks, he played dumb. Next we had questions about expense spending, he played dumb. The city had to settle a lawsuit because he felt women shouldn't have babies (gee how does that sound as a chief not very welcoming to the community) The headquarters over budget by $9 million, he plays dumb. The Eschert matter between investigations over it and everything else involved, he plays dumb. Deputy Chief Dulin Facebook incident, he plays dumb, Deputy Chief Dulin expense issues, he plays dumb. The Puckett leaked memo, he played dumb, got caught in the lie on TV, can't play dumb. The firefighters retirement issue, he plays dumb. This could go on and on but the point is how many FUCK ups does one person get let alone the Chief!!!!!! This guy gets more airtime the President Obama and President Trump combined.

Anonymous said...

guess they can call up Rick Hendrick to sell some of those antique fire trucks.

Anonymous said...

Great work to Meg Maloney for doing what's right and proving to the citizens of Charlotte and the City of Charlotte that we have problems! Now it's up to us to vote those out that had a chance to fix this matter several years ago! The City of Charlotte is a complete embarrassment for allowing this. I would hope with mud on their faces that they would at the least apologize for the agony they put that poor woman through.

Anonymous said...

They will never apologize. They will never admit they were wrong. They will probably appeal. They will probably at least fight the amount. If they give in at some point, they will claim it's because it would cost too much to fight an "unjust" verdict and they "concede it might be difficult to get the truth out in this kind of forum" or some other stupid thing. They are feckless cowardly losers who will not ever admit the truth because they will try to cover up the truth at all costs (which we then pay for, because they are not ever held accountable). If there were accountability, a number of people would be fired, disbarred, and in jail. And they would be paying the settlement out of their own generously-paid retirement funds.

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Anonymous said...

Yet another take on this from Charlotte Observer. Wonder what Mayor and Council gonna do? No pressure it's only election year.

https://charlotteobserver.relaymedia.com/amp/opinion/editorials/article150255037.html

Anonymous said...

The City of Charlotte has got a ton of bad press on this. Bullying a young woman who looked pregnant SMH!!!!

Unknown said...

https://wildaboutteaching10.blogspot.com/2012/02/daily-news.html?showComment=1494866939313#c2580167487398511897

Anonymous said...

Man has shock and awe settled over our fire stations. The mighty dictator of ours is quietly in hiding. Guess he had to let air out of his bowed out chest.

Anonymous said...

Now it's time for CMPD to get sued. With racist King Putney and the rest of his goons.

Anonymous said...

And is Fallon working on this or not?

Anonymous said...

Business as usual over at headquarters

New records highlight lack of diversity at Charlotte Fire Department http://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/new-records-highlight-lack-of-diversity-at-charlotte-fire-department/528787748

Anonymous said...

We the white people of the Charlotte Fire Department, in Order to form a more perfect brotherhood, abolish Justice, insure domestic Chaos, deprive the common defence, hurt the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this good ole white boy club for the City of Charlotte.

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