A state employment board has reversed a decision that did not allow a former police officer turned whistleblower to receive unemployment benefits, according to documents obtained by The Reporter.
In October, The Department of Labor Board of Review issued a ruling in the case of Austin Handle, a former Dunwoody police officer who was fired from the department on May 11, 2020 in what he alleges was a case of retaliation for speaking up about officer misconduct.
In 2020, multiple department employees alleged that former Lt. Fidel Espinoza sexually harassed them and in some cases asked for sexual favors for work benefits. While Handle did not claim that Espinoza harassed him personally, he said he was aware of it and received harassment in other ways. Handle posted a video to TikTok the week before he was fired, hinting he would speak up about police corruption. However, he did not name the Dunwoody Police Department until a later video.
The department has previously denied all of Handle’s claims and said that Handle was fired due to a separate internal affairs investigation that found he allegedly used his police car’s emergency equipment and sped through his neighborhood, which is a violation of department policy. The investigation also said Handle allegedly lied about it to command staff.
According to Handle, when he initially filed for unemployment, the employment board ruled in favor of Dunwoody and denied him, using the findings of the internal investigation against him....
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