CLEVELAND, Ohio — A federal judge on Wednesday tossed a lawsuit filed by a fired Warrensville Heights police officer who gained notoriety when she posted a Facebook video decrying the use of force by police officers.
Nakia Jones, who worked at the department from 2002 to 2017, said in a lawsuit that officials for the east side suburb fired her as retaliation for the seven-minute video she posted that showed her passionately talking about how she believed racist white police officers have no business being in uniform. The video has been viewed more than 8.3 million times.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan, however, wrote that Jones did not show a correlation between the video, which she posted in February 2016, and her firing in October 2017.
(You can read the full opinion here or at the bottom of this story.)
Jones — who sued the city, Mayor Brad Sellers and police Chief Wesley Haynes in May — was instead fired for misusing her sick time, the judge noted in a 22-page opinion. Officials became suspicious that Jones was doing public speaking engagements, and was as traveling and attending weddings, while receiving workers’ compensation in the months after she was involved in a May 2017 car crash while on duty, Gaughan wrote.
Jones was scheduled to return to work Oct. 9, 2017, but she called in sick that day and the next one due to a headache.
Sellers decided to conduct surveillance on Jones for her next scheduled work day on Oct. 13. Jones again called in sick for the next three days, again claiming a headache and a flare-up of lupus. But the personnel assigned to conduct surveillance on Jones saw her board a plane to Philadelphia, where she spoke at a conference, Gaughan wrote in the opinion.
Gaughan, in ruling against Jones on a summary judgment motion, wrote that “there is no causal connection between plaintiff’s protected speech and her termination, and defendants have demonstrated that there was a legitimate reason for the decision.”
The judge also threw out claims alleging infliction of emotional distress and a hostile work environment.
Jones’ video shows her decrying violence and saying black men and children need to stop picking up guns and start following better paths. But her words became more pointed and fervent as she addressed the 2016 death of Alton Sterling, a black man shot during a struggle with two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jones said in the video that white police officers should not be on the job if they are racist.
Soon thereafter, ABC News invited Jones to sit on a panel with President Barack Obama for a town hall on race. She continues to do speaking engagements.
Her assistant Jocelyn Hurt said Wednesday that her boss had no comment, and that Jones would let her attorneys address the ruling.
Sellers said in a statement issued through a city spokeswoman that Warrensville Heights officials are pleased with Gaughan’s decision.
“We’ve always felt that once all the facts of the case were presented, the city’s position would be vindicated and the claim made against the city would be proven frivolous,” Sellers said in the statement. “We will continue to serve Warrensville Heights and its citizens to the best of our abilities.”
Officials with the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents rank-and-file Warrensville Heights police officers, said in September that they filed a grievance against the department the day Jones was terminated. The status of that grievance was not immediately clear Wednesday.
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