Opinion ID: 3164647
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: GBI Reference Check

Text: Plaintiff Captain Stevens also argues that back in February 2012 she did not violate any Department policy by telling a GBI officer that a former Forest Park officer had once attempted to grab her chest. As noted above, Stevens was disciplined for this incident (which was cited in the Last Chance Agreement). The February 2012 disciplinary report, that Stevens received, stated that she violated Chief Hobbs’s General Order #31 by providing undocumented information that could not be verified during a job reference. Order #31 states that (a) only the Chief of Police or persons to whom the Chief provides explicit written authority may provide any information or opinion about any Forest Park Police Department employee or former employee to any outside person or entity; and (b) it is the policy of the Forest Park Police Department to provide accurate and truthful information concerning its employees and former employees. 19 Case: 15-11265 Date Filed: 12/22/2015 Page: 20 of 24 Stevens does not dispute that she had not reported the groping behavior of the former officer before she told the GBI officer about it. In fact, when presented with the February 2012 disciplinary report stating that her disclosure of unverifiable information fell “outside the scope of General Order #31,” Stevens checked a box stating that she concurred with this statement (although she clarified that her intention was to be truthful). Even assuming arguendo that this GBI incident played a material role in Stevens’s ultimate termination, her evidence fails to create a triable issue concerning pretext.