Jury Rules in Favor of Former Employee Who Informed on Co-Workers
A jury of six women and one man in U.S. District Court awarded a former Oregon airport employee $365,000 in damages after she was allegedly retailated against by her superiors in a whistleblower case. The suit against Jackson County contended that Lynda Longfellow, a former parking enforcement officer, had been retaliated against by her superiors at the county airport, infringing on her free-speech rights. Among the allegations were that two airport security personnel were fired for sleeping on the job and another employee was fired after the theft of a laptop computer. “This trial focused on an epidemic of problems of security officers sleeping on the job,” said Medford attorney Thad Guyer, who represented Longfellow.