CarolinaGuy said: Looks like a certain Mayberry-wannabe has been having a tough time with lawsuits as of late...
Not only do they harass citizens...they harass each other.
Including one "part-time officer Karen Gallagher".
link
Dickson City will pay a former borough policeman $50,000 to settle a case in which the ex-officer claimed the police chief and other officers harassed him after he filed a wrongful termination suit in 2005.
Harold A. Nudelman, a Dickson City police officer for 31 years, said he signed paperwork Thursday agreeing to the settlement after consulting with his attorney, Scott Schermerhorn.
“I wanted my day in court,” Mr. Nudelman said, but added he didn’t want to run the risk of taking his suit to trial and coming away with nothing. “I could have gone to court and gotten less from a jury.”
Dickson City council President Barbara Mecca said she had no information about the settlement. Calls to the borough’s chief clerk, Ken Novak, were not returned Thursday.
Mr. Nudelman sued the Police Department, Chief William A. Stadnitski and two officers, Philip F. Davitt and Thomas Logan. The suit claimed the department “engaged in a pattern of selectively targeting” employees at Mr. Nudelman’s new job, Millennium Packaging Services Inc.
To back up that claim, Mr. Nudelman’s lawsuit details what he says was an arrest in November 2004, after a traffic stop involving a Millennium tractor-trailer.
Lawyers for the police say Mr. Nudelman was never arrested but was given a citation for disorderly conduct. The citation was later dismissed by a magisterial district judge, according to the suit.
Mr. Nudelman believed that the officers were harassing him because of an earlier federal suit he had filed, claiming wrongful termination after he was fired in 2004.
That case was settled in 2005, according to court paperwork.
This is the sixth settlement Dickson City has reached in the past 13 months.
In November 2006, the borough settled a wrongful termination suit brought by Mr. Novack for $125,000 — his job was subsequently restored — and also a police civil rights complaint filed by Councilman Anthony Gallis for $80,000.
In January, a police civil rights suit filed by former Councilman William Bott was settled for $25,000, and former zoning officer Ken Sosnowski settled a wrongful termination suit for $21,000 the following month.
Last month, former part-time officer Karen Gallagher settled a sexual harassment suit she brought against the borough for $139,000.
As a result of the rash of lawsuits, the borough’s current liability insurance policy carries a $25,000 deductible, Mr. Novak said last month.