By Mike Gangloff
The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, Va. — Legal fallout from a Roanoke fire captain’s on-duty tryst with an ambulance crew member continued Tuesday as a judge said the firefighter can’t pick the panel that will decide whether to give him his job back or uphold his firing.
Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Charlie Dorsey’s ruling was a defeat for former fire Capt. Dennis Croft, who has battled both the city and an ex-girlfriend in court since he was dismissed last summer for having sex in a fire department bunkhouse. The next step for Croft, who appealed his dismissal, appears to be a city grievance panel scheduled to review his case May 24.
The complicated saga of Croft’s dismissal began on April 15, 2010, when Croft, while on duty, and Deborah Van Ness, an emergency medic who had finished her shift, snuggled on a couch in a city firehouse.
The next day, Croft reported to his boss that he’d violated fire department policy by allowing Van Ness in the building after visiting hours. He said that he and Van Ness fell asleep watching a movie.
Department officials questioned Van Ness, who said nothing sexual had occurred. Croft was reprimanded and apologized to other firefighters on his shift, according to court filings. But in June, Croft and Van Ness broke up, and Van Ness began sending angry text messages to a female firefighter who she thought was Croft’s new girlfriend, court documents said.
Van Ness’ ex-husband was a friend of Roanoke Fire Chief David Hoback, court filings said. The ex-husband told Hoback that he was worried about the tone of the text messages now flying among Van Ness, Croft and the other firefighter. Hoback asked Van Ness what was happening. Van Ness told the chief that she’d lied in April, court documents said.
She signed a new statement saying that she and Croft had sex during Croft’s shift. Croft was promptly dismissed. He sued Van Ness for defamation, saying that while they had a sexual relationship, they did not have sex on the night she claimed.
Roanoke Circuit Court Judge William Broadhurst dismissed the lawsuit, saying in part that with both parties agreeing there was sex, a dispute about the date was not defamation. Croft also attacked the makeup of the panel that will decide whether to give him back his job. The city appoints nine panel members, who divide themselves into three-person groups to hear grievance cases.
The city gives the panels the last word on personnel matters. Croft went to court to try to force Roanoke to act as many other Virginia localities do and form a panel where the city chooses one member, the person filing a grievance chooses a second and the third is picked by mutual consent. The joint choice of a panel is mandated by a 1978 Virginia law.
But the law allows localities to use other methods to form grievance committees if they had won state approval before the 1978 law. On Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Assistant City Attorney Timothy Spencer said the city had the prior approval it needed to continue appointing all the panel members. Wilburn Dibling, who was Roanoke’s city attorney for 20 years starting in 1979, testified that the state reviewed and approved the city’s 1970s ordinances that dealt with grievances.
But John Loeschen of Roanoke, an attorney for Roanoke Firefighters Local Union 1132, said it was unclear from the old documents whether the state saw the city’s actual grievance policy, or just the ordinances that established it. The difference, Loeschen argued, could be that the state never saw anything that showed how the city would form its panel.
Asked by Dorsey whether simply reading the grievance policy would settle the matter, Spencer said the city has lost the policy documents that were in effect when the 1978 state law took effect. Dorsey said it was unfortunate that documents were missing, but he was convinced that nothing underhanded had occurred.
Saying Loeschen had failed to prove the state did not see everything it needed to in its 1970s reviews, Dorsey granted the city’s motion for summary judgment and ruled against Croft.
Loeschen said the former captain will appeal the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Copyright 2011 Times-World, LLC
All Rights Reserved