The ruling may foreshadow a decision in a similar case involving the city’s ex-police chief, Joel Fitzgerald.
DALLAS — A Dallas jury awarded more than $1 million in lost wages and benefits to a former Fort Worth employee on Thursday who argued the city retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on alleged corruption.
The employee, Ronald Burke, is also asking to be reinstated to his position as Fort Worth’s assistant director of information technology services. It is not yet clear whether that will happen.
The jury’s decision is a victory for Burke and attorney Stephen Kennedy. Kennedy represents two other men, including the city’s former police chief Joel Fitzgerald, in similar cases against Fort Worth that are centered around the same incident.
“Every case is different,” Kennedy said, noting today’s decision has no legal impact on the upcoming trials involving his other clients. “I feel very good about the facts, but obviously we have to try each individual case on its own merits.”
In 2018, Burke and colleague William Birchett discovered the city had not followed the federal government’s cybersecurity for an FBI database the city uses. After the IT workers reported the problem to Fitzgerald, the chief warned city leaders non-compliance could strip police of their ability to share information about criminals with other law enforcement agencies.
The city fired Fitzgerald soon after. Fort Worth officials have argued his termination was product of a series of missteps, including a heated exchange with a state police union leader at a Washington, D.C. awards show.
The city has also contended it reprimanded Burke and Birchett because it was not satisfied with their work.
But the Dallas jury concluded Thursday that city officials effectively forced Burke to quit his job because he reported the alleged wrongdoing to Fitzgerald.
“What we have is a breach of the public trust,” Kennedy said. “When you breach the public trust, you have to be held accountable.”
Fitzgerald, currently Denver’s transit police chief, returned to the metroplex to testify in Burke’s trial.
A spokesperson told WFAA the city of Fort Worth is “disappointed” with the jury’s verdict, but that it respects the jury’s decision and thanks them for their service.
Birchett’s trial is scheduled for August. Fitzgerald’s trial is slated for October.