Suit against Orange’s sheriff will continue

Deputy, now 57, had filed age discrimination claim after his transfer

An Orange County deputy who sued the department alleging age discrimination, only to have his case closed via summary judgment, will have another chance at a day in court.

Deputy Thomas Lin, now 57, joined the sheriff ’s office in 1988 and was assigned to the agency’s Marine Unit in 1993, court records show.

An attorney who represented the sheriff ’s office in the case did not respond to requests for comment this week.

In 2009, the year Lin turned 50, he was transferred from the Marine Unit to road patrol, where he remains, records show. He also was suspended without pay for 10 hours.

He later sued the department and Sheriff Jerry Demings, saying he had heard new unit supervisors saying they wanted to bring in younger deputies and that he was still fit for the duties his job entailed.

“He wants to serve back on the Marine Unit, he wants to recoup the money he lost,” said Lin’s attorney, Daniel Perez of Orlando firm Hogan & Hogan. “And he wants to to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

In 2015, Circuit Judge Margaret Schreiber reviewed the arguments and issued a summary judgement in favor of Demings, saying that Lin’s claim “fails as a matter of law.”

Lin appealed, and last week Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach agreed with him, saying that the case should be sent back to court.

“Although the Sheriff presented evidence suggesting that Lin’s ten-hour suspension without pay and transfer out of the marine unit were were the result of legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons, and, thus, not pretextual, Lin presented conflicting evidence,” appeals judges wrote in their opinion. “… As such, it was error to enter summary judgement in this case.”

Attorneys for the sheriff ’s office have a chance to appeal the ruling. If they do not, the case will return to local courts and Perez said he hopes to take it to trial.

As a member of the Marine Unit, Lin’s job included investigating cases of boating under the influence, boating crashes and helping with cases where bodies or weapons were found in the water.

The unit is considered specialized, Perez said, and the job came with more pay and the opportunity to be hired by private companies to work extra-duty assignments on the water that paid more as well.

So the transfer to road patrol hurt Lin financially, the attorney added.

“Everybody is going to grow old, and he understands that,” Perez said.

“Just because you’re 50 doesn’t mean now you have to start changing your role in the workplace to fit a role of what a 50-year-old can or can’t do.”

Future hearings in the case have not yet been scheduled.