Nurse fired for threatening cops

I remember ticketing an emergency room doctor who was really obnoxious...and trust me I know about being obnoxious.  I was just thinking I'd be in there for a cut and the doctor would be there."Crack his chest....no anesthetic!"

Now a nurse got fired for threatening a cop...and it's going through the courts.  Gotta love it.  But look at the judge who's handed the case.

Appeals panel to hear case of nurse fired for comment to officer who ticketed her - The Denver Post

When Colorado Springs policeman Duaine Peters stopped and ticketed cardiac nurse Miriam Leverington for speeding, she let him know she wasn't happy.


"I hope you are not ever my patient," Leverington said.


The statement cost Leverington her job because the officer contacted her bosses at Memorial Health System and told them she had threatened him during a traffic stop.


After she was fired, Leverington sued the city of Colorado Springs, which runs Memorial hospital, and Peters, claiming they violated her right to free speech.


Today, a three-judge panel on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear arguments in her case.


Leverington believes she was exercising her right to criticize the government, but the city argues she made a threat to the police officer, and threats are not considered protected speech.


She lost her case in November when U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch dismissed the suit.


"There is no authority to support a claim that such a single statement in that context can be considered protected speech," Matsch wrote.

Anyone remember the name Matsch.  He handled the McVeigh trail for the bombing in Oklahoma City.  As I recall he didn't suffer fools (e.g. reporters) well...and after the disaster the OJ Simpson trial was his no tolerance for BS/this ain't Judge Judy's show handling of the case was refreshing.

...The traffic stop occurred Dec. 17, 2008, on Interstate 25. Peters issued Leverington a ticket for going 14 mph over the speed limit. It was her first ticket in 20 years.

Leverington claims that, during the stop, Peters was rude and that his attitude prompted her comment.


Peters then told her he was going to call her supervisor to report the threat. Leverington told Peters she wasn't threatening him, just saying she didn't want to have anything to do with him again.


"This criticism is akin to questioning the integrity of Officer Peters of revealing the impropriety of a government official, and thus is a matter of public concern," her attorney, Ian D. Kalmanowitz, wrote in the appeal. "It has long been established that members of the public are free to criticize the government including police."

Right...she didn't want anything to do with him...that wouldn't have anything to do with her being a nurse.  It was a threatening statement.

But Colorado Springs City Attorney Tracy Lessig says Leverington used her position as a city-employed nurse when she made the statement.


"She was speaking pursuant to her employment, not as a private citizen, when she made the statement to Officer Peters," Lessig wrote in her brief. "Although her statement was not made 'at work' it was clearly 'about work.' "

Gee Nurse Leverington if the cop said "I hope you are not ever my prisoner," how would you take that.  From this article (granted, not much to go one) you were expecting special treatment and you didn't get it.  I say that because many county/city workers expect professional courtesy and are shocked when they don't get it.  Good chance the cop couldn’t get away with it.  Next time don't threaten someone and just pay the fine.  It's cheaper and easier.