By Maddie Hanna
Concord Monitor
MERRIMACK COUNTY, N.H. — Before he got into the parking lot fight with a fellow prison guard that led to his yearlong suspension, Mark Jordan told the guard he should get in his truck and go home.
But the guard, who had stripped down from his prison uniform into a T-shirt, clenched his fists and quickly crossed the lot, coming within a foot of Jordan, according to a witness.
He then pressed his forehead into Jordan’s so firmly that Jordan’s nose was “bent over to the side of his face,” the witness, Cpl. Steven Isabelle, said yesterday, testifying on the first day of Jordan’s civil trial against the state in Merrimack County Superior Court.
Jordan, 43, sued the state last year after he was suspended without pay following the March 2010 fight, which happened in the parking lot of the state prison in Concord.
The corrections department said it suspended Jordan because the state police were conducting a criminal investigation into the incident.
But Jordan — who returned to work after he was found not guilty of simple assault earlier this year — said he was punished for publicly criticizing department policies while serving as the president of the
New England Police Benevolent Association chapter that represents the state’s corrections officers.
His lawyer, Chuck Douglas, said union politics played into the parking lot fight with Sgt. Thomas Messina. A steward in the State Employees Association, Messina had “a beef” with Jordan about cuts to overtime pay for sergeants and lieutenants, Douglas said.
And on the day of the fight, Messina — the officer in charge of the prison’s secure housing unit — had an argument on the phone with Jordan, according to a corrections officer who works in the unit.
The officer, Aaron McDonald, testified yesterday that he overheard Messina “screaming” at the unit’s manager about Jordan. “He was telling them Jordan was a problem, if they don’t take care of Officer Jordan, he’s going to take care of Jordan himself,” McDonald said.
Later that afternoon, Jordan told officers in the prison parking lot about the argument with Messina, said Isabelle, who is also a member of Jordan’s unit and said union members would regularly meet in the parking lot to talk after work.
As Messina walked into the lot, Jordan said to him: “ ‘What’s the matter, you’re not going to say anything now that we’re not on the phone?’ ” Isabelle recalled yesterday. He said Jordan “didn’t swear or shout” at the sergeant.
Messina responded by telling Jordan, “‘If you’re man enough, why don’t you come over and say it to my face,’” Isabelle said. Jordan told Messina to leave, and that’s when Messina crossed the lot, Isabelle said.
Once Messina was in front of Jordan, “hands started going, they started getting into each other,” Isabelle said. He said he and other officers who had been talking to Jordan separated the two men.
After the fight with Jordan, Messina went to tell the prison warden he’d been assaulted, giving corrections officials already upset with Jordan “an opportunity to literally lock him out of the prisons,” Douglas said.
Douglas described Jordan’s suspension as “an attempt by the government to intimidate Mark,” violating the state law that gives public employees the right to share their opinions.
Jordan had been a critic of certain corrections policies, including Senate Bill 500, which became law last year and called for prisoners to be released nine months before their maximum sentences. In early 2010, Jordan opposed it because “it would not properly leave strings on the inmates,” Douglas said.
Jordan also filed numerous grievances on behalf of the union, Douglas said.
But the suspension didn’t stop Jordan from continuing to publicly discuss his opinions, said Assistant Attorney General Lynmarie Cusack, who is defending the state in the lawsuit.
“He was not chilled. He continued to speak out and push for what he wanted,” Cusack said, noting that Jordan — who continued to serve as the union president during his suspension — did radio and newspaper interviews and addressed the state Legislature.
As for the parking lot incident, Cusack said Jordan instigated the fight with the sergeant by yelling at him and also punched him, an act Isabelle said he didn’t witness.
“He does this because he thinks he’s immune from the workplace rules,” Cusack said of Jordan. By alleging that he was retaliated against for speaking out, Jordan “wants to hide behind those union activities and that union activism and use it as a shield for his misbehavior,” Cusack said.
Jordan’s suspension was ultimately amended to five days without pay, but he is asking for compensation for losses he sustained during the year he had no income or health insurance.
The trial continues today in Merrimack County Superior Court.
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