By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The former Department of Corrections officer fired after she alerted supervisors to dangerously low staffing conditions scored another win in court as her whistleblower lawsuit got the green light to proceed.
Claudia Cass has been fighting to get her job back on multiple fronts since she was ousted in 2023. On Friday, Merrimack Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire ruled against the DOC, which was trying to get her whistleblower lawsuit dismissed without a trial.
DOC lawyers tried to argue that violations of internal staffing rules and policies don’t rise to the level of violating a state or federal law, and therefore Cass could not claim whistleblower status. But St. Hilaire wrote that Cass’s understanding of the very real staffing emergency inside the State Prison for Men in Concord, and the fact she was fired after reporting it to her bosses, mean she is a whistleblower.
“Although internal DOC policies do not rise to the level of statutes or promulgated rules and regulations, [Cass’s] complaint satisfies the ‘good faith’ requirement because it demonstrates her honest belief that putting co-workers and the inmates at risk was a violation of the law,” St. Hilaire wrote. “In this case, [Cass] repeatedly and clearly communicated that incredibly low staffing levels were ‘unreasonably unsafe and that this situation needed to be rectified by the DOC.’ Upon review, the Court is not persuaded by the State’s argument that this is a case where...
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