Mo. DOC officer settles two lawsuits
By Charles Emerick
Kansas City Daily Record
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A corrections officer who claimed he was retaliated against for blowing the whistle on illegal activity agreed to settle a pair of lawsuits on Monday.
Bryant Holmes, a 14-year veteran of the Missouri Department of Corrections, accepted a lump sum of $315,000 that will close out his two cases against the department and its former superintendent.
Holmes claimed in his suits that he suffered emotional distress when he was allegedly transferred involuntarily to a job in St. Joseph from Kansas City for whistleblowing. His second lawsuit asserted that he was later passed over for a promotion for speaking out.
“He lived in Grandview, where he was a part-time police officer,” said Holmes’ attorney Mark Jess, of the Employee Rights Law Firm. “He had to eventually quit that job because the hours he spent driving back and forth to St. Joe weren’t workable. He didn’t get to see his kids, who were in all kinds of activities.
“It was basically, ‘You blow the whistle on us, we’ll fix you,’” Jess added.
Included in the settlement was a $60,000 jury verdict Holmes won in February for the emotional stress claim. Also in that case, Jackson County Associate Circuit Judge Vernon Scoville III granted a motion for $234,000 in attorneys’ fees, which also is part of the deal.
An appeal by the state in that case will be dismissed, Jess said. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment.
The remaining $20,000 settled Holmes’ second lawsuit -- a retaliation allegation that also will be dismissed.
Jess said Holmes first reported in October 2004 that unarmed officers at the Kansas City Community Release Center were ordered to take part in a dangerous off-site mission.
After filing a report expressing the conduct, Holmes then alleged his superiors gave him negative performance reviews, leading to his transfer to St. Joseph.
Holmes later applied to be chief of custody at the Kansas City facility, Jess said.
“It was our intention in suit two that he didn’t get that position even though he was the most qualified,” Jess said, “because he had earlier exercised his rights under the Missouri Human Rights Act. “
As it turned out, however, Holmes got the job in May.
Jess said the man who was awarded the position asked for a demotion because of conflicts with his supervisor.
“He got the promotion, it was just later than when he should have gotten it in the first place,” Jess said.
Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires