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Loading ...Mistrial in SD firefighters gay pride suit
10.07.2008 1:09pm EDT
(San Diego, California) A mistrial has been declared in a lawsuit brought by four San Diego firefighters who were assigned to take part in the city’s 2007 LGBT pride parade.
The four claimed they were victims of sexual harassment and became emotionally distressed as a result of their treatment.Judge Michael Anello declared the mistrial Monday when the jury of six men and six women became hopelessly deadlocked after four days of deliberations.
Charles LiMandri, the firefighters’ attorney, in his closing arguments asked the jury to award $500,000 to $1 million to each firefighter. He called the mistrial “frustrating” and suggested the suit may be refiled.
The four firefighters claimed in the suit that they followed the order that they appear in the parade, fearing that if they refused they would be suspended or punished.
The lawsuit claimed that the pride parade is a political event whose purpose is to advocate for LGBT rights including “the controversial concept of gay marriage” and that the department improperly used the four to support a political cause.
A spokesperson for the fire department said that the men were assigned to the parade at the last minute because the volunteer participants backed out at the last minute when one of them had a family crisis, and that the four worked in a fire station near the parade route.
City Attorney Michael Aguirre said the lawsuit “was about greed” and declared the jury’s deadlock a total victory.
Last month, one of the firefighters told the court that he was sexually taunted by crowds on the street and has been undergoing counseling to try to cope with the aftermath of the experience.
Charles Kane testified that participating in the parade has affected his family life and that he has been ridiculed by some at his fire station.
“I felt confused, embarrassed, used, abandoned by my leadership … I had to fight through it,” he testified.
But under cross-examination by city attorney Michael Aguirre, Kane acknowledged that the fire hall is in the largely gay Hillcrest neighborhood, and that he actually lives in the area.
Aguirre said some of the “overtly sexual” behavior at the parade that Kane complained about likely occurred on a daily basis in the area.
Kane replied that he had seen gay sexual behavior but that he could go home and close the door.
“Well, you could have closed your eyes during the parade. You could have averted your eyes.” Aguirre shot back.
The city should not have assigned them to participate. If the original volunteers backed out, then the city should have found other willing volunteers or completely pulled themselves from the parade. A total PR no-no disaster the city opened themselves to this type of a lawsuit.
The suit was about greed. They’re just trying to make an easy buck, and they’re feigning traumatization. They’d probably roll out of their car and flop around on the ground like a fish if they so much as got rearended by a bicycle.
These men are just trying to get the money. I am a gay man, and have on many occasions been hit on by women. I don’t take it as harassment, in fact I find it a compliment. They were not handled or harrassed in any way. We as gay people face real harrassment every day. So to you firefighter (many of whom I look up to) get real!
Good Lord! Man up already. Poor little firefighter, the big bad sissies and nancy boys made remarks and flirted with you…..and for this you need counselling??!! I don’t know about anyone else, but if these ‘men’ can’t handle a little ‘taunting’, I don’t know if they’d be the firemen I’d want trying to fight a real fire or deal with a real emergency. Makes you wonder who the sissies really are.