A North Bergen EMT who says he was fired because he refused to obey a command by North Bergen police officers to take a man to the hospital against his will may have his day in court after all.
An appellate panel Monday overturned a lower court’s decision to throw out the whistleblower claim by Luis DeLeon, but affirmed the summary judgment against his former co-worker, Tamara Sepulveda, because she never filed a report about the incident afterward.
The 25-page decision said the lower court was hasty in deciding the DeLeon was not being retaliated against for the July 31, 2017 incident in which police responded to a North Bergen home after a woman said she was concerned about her husband’s behavior.
DeLeon, who said he and Sepulveda told police that taking the man to the hospital against his will was akin to kidnapping, was fired by North Bergen after being cited with incompetency, inefficiency, failure to perform duties; inability to perform duties; conduct unbecoming a public employee; neglect of duty; and violation of standard operating procedures based upon his failure to complete a medical assessment of the patient and inappropriate outbursts and use of vituperative epithets in front of the patient.
Sepulveda “resigned voluntarily, claiming the environment at the township’s EMS department was ‘hostile and uncomfortable,’ and she believed she faced possible ‘chances of retaliation from (the) North Bergen (police department) when (EMTs) do not comply with their wishes...
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