By Paul Hughes
Journal Inquirer
WATERBURY, Conn. — A state judge is considering the city’s request to cite a former city firefighter contesting his 2018 firing for using medical marijuana for contempt.
Attorney James A. Mengacci told Judge John L. Cordani during a hearing Wednesday conducted remotely in state Superior Court in Waterbury that former Fire Department Lt. Thomas Eccelston has engaged in a pattern of flouting court orders and harassing Mengacci, including accusing him of unprofessional conduct and criminal activity.
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The self-represented Eccelston appearing remotely from his South Carolina home acknowledged that he violated a court order when he sent an email to Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. on May 14, but argued he decided to defy the order to report criminal and unprofessional conduct on the part of Mengacci.
Cordani made no ruling Wednesday. He asked Mengacci to provide the court a copy of the May 14 email. He told both Mengacci and Eccelston that he would review the communication and then make a decision, but did not indicate how long that will take.
Eccleston was fired after a random drug screen in March 2018 tested positive for marijuana in violation of a “last-chance agreement” he signed in November 2015 to avoid termination then following an arrest for domestic violence two months earlier. He had obtained a state-issued medical marijuana card for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder two weeks before his positive drug test.
The last-chance agreement required that Eccelston submit to random drug testing and stipulated he would be fired if he failed a drug test. After his dismissal, he subsequently filed federal and state lawsuits alleging workplace discrimination that were both dismissed.
The state lawsuit was dismissed June 11. It alleged his firing violated the protections for qualifying patients under the state’s medical marijuana law. The trial court ruled the evidence established that he was terminated because his positive test for marijuana use violated the last-chance agreement that did not differentiate between the legal or illegal use of marijuana. Eccelston is appealing the ruling.
City claims Eccelston made ethnic slurs
Mengacci told Cordani he understands that Eccelston is emotionally upset, but he should be cited for contempt for his continued leveling of unfounded accusations against him and offensive conduct in violation of court orders, including using an ethnic slur against him in his response to the city’s contempt motion. He said he believes Eccelston’s ongoing behavior amounts to harassment.
” Mr. Eccelston has repeatedly and with no support whatsoever on numerous occasion alleged that I have engaged in violations of the criminal laws of the state of Connecticut and also the rules of professional conduct,” Mengacci said.
He also noted that Eccelston asked the court to hold him in contempt in his response to the city’s contempt motion, and that he has called Cordani corrupt in court filings.
Eccelston portrayed himself as a whistle blower trying to call attention to corruption and wrongdoing, saying, “This situation raises profound concerns about judicial overreach, accountability and suppression of a lawful whistle blower, and I would like to add the issue here is not with the dialect of a pro-se litigant, but the criminal conduct of an officer of the court.”
In court filings, Eccelston accused Mengacci of fabricating evidence by introducing an alerted police report concerning his 2015 domestic violence arrest and a perjured affidavit. No such findings have been made by any court.
The city’s contempt motion alleges Eccelston twice violated a court order Cordani issued Jan. 29 that Eccelston only communicate to current or former city employees regarding the court case solely through Mengacci, and that he refrain from using profane language, ethnic slurs and language that a reasonable person would find threatening in communicating to Mengacci.
The first alleged violation of the Jan. 29 order was the filing of a motion for clarification of that order that leveled allegations of unprofessional conduct, criminal activity and conspiracy against Mengacci, and claims of conspiracy and corruption against Cordani.
Eccelston allegedly violated the order a second time by sending the May 14 email to Pernerewski through a mayoral aide. The city’s motion claims the email contains threatening and harassing language, and Eccelston specifically states and acknowledges that he has “both a criminal court order and civil court order not to talk to you, the people’s elected representative.”
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