Opinion ID: 712082
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Gummo's Employment With the Police Department

Text: 4 From 1977 until his discharge in January 1990, Gummo was employed as a police officer by the Depew Police Department. In December 1986, he enlisted in the United States Air Force Reserves (Reserves) and was assigned to military duties at the Air Force base in Niagara Falls, New York, some 30 miles from Depew. Gummo's military obligations required him to participate in training sessions one weekend each month at the Air Force base and to attend a two-week tour of training each year (annual tour) at a site designated by the Air Force. As a municipal employee, Gummo was entitled under state law to be paid his salary during any less-than-30-day absence for military training. See N.Y.Military Law § 242(5) (McKinney 1990). 5 The Depew Police Department's policy was to grant requests for paid military leave when reservists presented to the Department their official written orders specifying the dates of their military training. Until October 1988, Gummo complied with that policy. In that month, Gummo submitted a handwritten note indicating his weekend military training dates for November and December 1988. Police Captain James A. Brennan instructed Gummo to submit his official written military orders for all of fiscal 1988-1989. Gummo promptly complied in part, submitting orders for his weekend tours but not for his annual tour. On December 25, he notified Brennan that his next annual tour was scheduled for June 10-24, 1989, but he did not submit official written military orders at that time. 6 In January 1989, Gummo was instructed to meet with Police Chief John T. Maccarone to discuss Gummo's failure to provide the Department with the official orders for his annual tour. The parties have different views as to what occurred at the meeting. Gummo asserts that Maccarone questioned him about his military leave and that Maccarone cursed at him, called him a liar, a sneak, and a disgrace to the uniform, and twice threatened to get him. The Village asserts that at the meeting, Gummo yelled and screamed at Maccarone without restraint and became threatening. In any event, there appears to be no dispute that the meeting was rancorous, that Gummo left the meeting peremptorily without having been dismissed, and that as he was leaving he said, in the presence of other Police Department employees, Somebody should choke that man. As a result of this incident, Gummo was charged with several counts of misconduct, including conduct unbecoming a police officer, disobedience of an order, and insubordination to a superior officer. He was found guilty on most counts and was suspended for 30 days without pay. 7 In May 1989, Gummo notified Captain Brennan in writing that the start of his annual tour had been rescheduled from June 10 to June 9. Gummo attached his official written military orders, which authorized him to receive 16 days of leave for military duty (June 9-24), as well as one day of leave for travel to the Air Force base. The orders stated that he was to report at the Air Force base on June 9 at 7:30 a.m. 8 Gummo was scheduled, however, to work the night shift on June 8, starting at 11:00 p.m. and ending at 7:00 a.m. on June 9 (the June 8-9 night-shift), i.e., a shift ending 30 minutes before the start of his annual tour at the Air Force base. On June 7, 1989, he submitted to Captain Brennan a written request for military leave from that shift in order to have time to prepare for and travel to the annual training session. The request was initially denied by Maccarone on the ground Gummo had not submitted military orders with his request. 9 On June 8, Gummo renewed his request to be relieved of the June 8-9 night-shift assignment; Maccarone advised Gummo that he could either trade shifts with another officer or obtain official written military orders indicating that he should be relieved of his assignment to the June 8-9 night-shift. On the afternoon of June 8, Gummo informed Maccarone that official notice from the Air Force concerning his military leave for that evening would be mailed to the Police Department. The Village states that Gummo said the official orders would be sent; Gummo asserts that he said a letter would be sent. Based on his June 8 conversation with Gummo, Maccarone instructed Captain Brennan to remove Gummo's name from the June 8 duty roster and informed Gummo that he would be granted the additional day of military leave. 10 Gummo asserts that sometime after 7:00 p.m. on June 8, he learned that the letter he had expected from the Air Force, authorizing military leave for that night's shift, would not be forthcoming. Gummo therefore reported for work at the Department at 11:00 p.m. on June 8. He worked until 3:00 a.m. on June 9, and was then driven home by the police lieutenant on duty. He went to the Air Force base at Niagara Falls to begin his annual tour of military duty a few hours later. 11 When Gummo returned to work following the completion of his annual tour, Maccarone summoned him to discuss the Department's nonreceipt of the written authorization Gummo had promised with respect to Gummo's June 8 military leave. When asked about his statement that written orders supporting the June 8 military leave had been mailed to the Department, Gummo stated that he had said a letter would be sent to the Police Department, having been told by an Air Force base secretary, whom he identified by her first name, that a letter would be sent. Gummo refused to reveal the name of the person who had thereafter informed him that no such letter would be sent on June 8, despite being ordered by Maccarone to do so, insisting that that information was irrelevant. Several times during the meeting, Gummo asked to be allowed to have counsel or a nearby union representative present to assist him before answering further questions, but Maccarone denied his requests. After responding to a series of questions about his eventual decision to report for work on June 8, Gummo declined to make any further statements unless he was permitted to have someone there to assist him. 12 Following that meeting, Gummo was charged with four counts of violating Police Department regulations, and in July 1989 he was suspended from the Department pending the resolution of the disciplinary charges. The Village appointed an impartial hearing officer to conduct an administrative proceeding. After a two-day hearing, the officer dismissed one of the charges, but found Gummo guilty of the other three, to wit, falsely advising the police chief that military orders were in the mail; disobeying a lawful order by refusing to answer questions relating to the events of June 8, 1989; and falsely stating to Maccarone that he had never claimed that military orders were being sent to the Department. In light of the finding of guilt and of Gummo's prior disciplinary record, the hearing officer recommended that Gummo be dismissed from the Police Department. 13 The Village accepted the recommendation and, in January 1990, terminated Gummo's employment with the Department. Gummo initiated a state-court challenge to his discharge but did not perfect that challenge.