Ex-cop allegedly fired for his military service to receive $325K

Officer deployed to the Middle East for Operation Iraqi Freedom

After a four-year legal battle, Mountain View has agreed to pay $325,000 to a former police officer who sued the city for allegedly firing him for his military service.

Nicholas Emmerling filed a lawsuit against the city in May 2015, alleging that his supervisors fired him after he went on leave to serve with the Army National Guard and care for his sick wife. He also claimed that the police department used an illegal quota system to justify his termination.

In Feb. 2017, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the city and dismissed Emmerling’s lawsuit due to a lack of evidence.

Emmerling appealed the decision the next month and won his case nearly two years later on Feb. 21.

The Mountain View Police Department hired Emmerling as a part-time officer in 2008. Less than six months later, he enlisted in the Army National Guard.

Emmerling was deployed to the Middle East for Operation Iraqi Freedom shortly after, and the city granted him leave for one year.

When he returned in 2010, Emmerling was told that he had missed the window to apply for a full-time position.

He went back to working as a part-time officer and later submitted an application for a full-time position when the police department announced openings in 2012.

The department hired Emmerling as a full-time officer in Nov. 2012 with the stipulation that he must complete an 18-month probationary period before permanently obtaining the position.

While on probation, Emmerling took 260 hours of leave for military training, 40 hours of leave after his daughter’s birth and 50 hours to care for his sick wife, according to court documents.

At the end, his supervisors then decided to extend his probation period and they fired him about a month later.

In February, the Sixth District Court of Appeals of California sided with Emmerling and reversed the previous decision, saying that there was substantial evidence proving that the city fired him for requesting and taking military leave, according to the court documents.

In making their decision, the appellate judges cited positive performance evaluations of Emmerling, testimony from four other Mountain View police officials who claimed they were similarly treated unfairly by the department, and emails between Emmerling’s supervisors that detailed their plan to keep him on probation in order to build a better case against his permanent hiring.

“My concern is the paper trail is not there. Despite not making a proactive arrest for 9 months, he has been rated as acceptable for his self-initiated activity… So there is no going back and moving forward, we would need to heavily document and train his deficiencies,” Lt. Frank St. Clair of the Mountain View Police Department wrote in a 2014 email.

Following the decision by the court of appeals in February, the city agreed to a settle the case in early April.

According to the settlement, the city “denies and disputes all of Emmerling’s claims” and are settling the case “in order to avoid the substantial expense and inconvenience of further litigation.”

Efforts to reach Emmerling’s attorney Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.