A trial date has been set for a former Fort Worth police chief who alleged in a lawsuit that his 2019 firing was retaliation for his attempts to uncover corruption.
A Dallas County civil court will hear Joel Fitzgerald’s whistlerblower case starting at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building, 600 Commerce St.
Fitzgerald, who served as Fort Worth’s police chief from 2015 to 2019, was fired shortly after getting into an argument with a union leader during a police conference in Washington, D.C. City leaders also accused the former chief of an “increasing lack of good judgment,” saying he couldn’t build relationships with other department heads and had mismanaged the police department budget, according to a letter from city manager David Cooke.
However, the Texas Workforce Commission ruled in July 2019 there was no evidence Fitzgerald had committed any work related misconduct, and in May 2020 a court ordered the city change his discharge designation to honorable.
Fitzgerald has also pointed to the fact that his firing came hours before he was scheduled to meet with federal investigators over concerns the city had violated the Criminal Justice Information Systems Act. He alleged city employees lied about the city being in compliance with regulations needed to access a federal law enforcement database, and that the employees destroyed evidence to cover it up.
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