By FireRescue1 Staff
CLEVELAND — A judge threw out a lawsuit filed by a black firefighter who claimed he was treated differently in a shift-trading scandal than the white firefighters involved.
Cleveland.com reported that firefighter Calvin Robinson and 12 white firefighters were criminally prosecuted after Robinson paid his colleagues to cover his shifts. Robinson filed a lawsuit after he was fired and the other 12 firefighters were given nine-month suspensions and limitations on shift-trading.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko said Robinson did not prove that race was the reason he lost his job, and threw out the lawsuit, saying Robinson was the only one fired because his actions were much worse than that of the other firefighters.
The incident occurred in 2011, and at the time shift trading was allowed and common. However, the hours were supposed to be paid back within a year, and an investigation uncovered that some firefighters were illegally being paid to work the traded shifts.
Judge Boyko said that Robinson, who paid colleagues to cover his shifts so he could work as a substitute teacher, an assistant football coach and a childcare center operator, owed 10,098 hours in unpaid trades between 2006 and 2011.
“Tellingly, Plaintiff worked only 32 hours between Jan. 1, 2009 and July 21, 2011,” Judge Boyko said.
Robinson pleaded guilty in 2014 to complicity to receive unlawful compensation.