MAYVILLE – A former Jamestown police officer has been awarded a settlement of $170,000 in damages from the city after a judge found he was discriminated against by the police department because of spending time away from the force due to serving in the military.
According to the Buffalo News, the state Supreme Court awarded former officer Timothy Wright a total of $172,681 in damages stemming from a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
Wright, who no longer serves on the JPD and is currently the Town of Carrol police chief, was serving as an Army Reserve officer and had come off a 2004 deployment in Iraq when he first filed the claim in 2007, and then he served two six-month deployments to Afghanistan, beginning in 2009.
In 2014, a Supreme Court jury in Chautauqua County decided against Wright’s claims regarding the promotion but also ruled the vacation time was unfairly calculated. The city and police department moved to appeal the decision but then dropped the action.
On July 17, State Supreme Court Justice Frank Sedita awarded Wright $44,656 in compensation, an additional $44,656 in damages and more than $83,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
It’s not yet know if the city will file an appeal against the decision.
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