Ruling: Sergeant should get job back
Arbitrator says sheriff’s office violated due process rights in firing in wake of shooting
A sheriff’s sergeant who was fired for sitting in his car and failing to react while a gunman slaughtered students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School should get his job back, as well as any lost wages, an arbitrator ruled.
Brian Miller was fired June 4. The union learned Wednesday that arbitrator concluded that the Broward County Sheriff’s
Office violated Miller’s due process rights when Sheriff Gregory Tony terminated him two days past a deadline that a state law allows for punishing law enforcement officers once an investigation is completed.
Lawyers for the union refuted questions posed that Miller can get his job back because of a technicality — a two-day technicality.
“The law is not a technicality,” said union attorney Michael Finesilver. “It’s state law. Our position is the sheriff has to follow state law. He cannot pick and choose law he wants to follow and the arbitrator agreed with us.”
The Broward Sheriff’s Office didn’t agree with the ruling.
“The Broward Sheriff’s Office does not agree with the arbitrator’s decision and stands by the initial termination of Sergeant Brian Miller,” according to a statement from its general counsel. “The arbitrator ruled on the case without conducting any evidentiary hearing whatsoever and without taking the testimony of a single witness. The decision was based upon a technicality that we believe was wrongly decided. The arbitrator ruled on a procedural issue that
BSO allegedly took too long to conduct the investigation, which is the exact opposite finding of an arbitrator that addressed this same issue in an earlier case. The Broward Sheriff ’s Office is exploring all legal options to address this erroneous decision.”
Tony fired Miller, 16 months after former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 17 more with an AR-15 rifle on Feb. 14, 2018.
The sheriff’s office has 90 days to challenge the ruling.
If reinstated, Miller will receive considerable money. He was paid more than