By Leah Thorsen
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ROCK TOWNSHIP, Mo. — A former paramedic for the Rock Township Ambulance District filed suit against the district Tuesday, claiming he was wrongfully fired for his role in exposing errors that cost taxpayers nearly $40,000.
Kevin Boyer is seeking more than $1 million from the district and its board of directors in the suit filed in Hillsboro. He also wants his job back plus back pay.
The suit says he was fired Jan.19, a few months after he told Margie Sammons, the ambulance district’s administrator, that the district had paid monthly health insurance premiums of $400 for his ex-wife even after he had filled out forms to have her removed from his plan after they divorced.
“He exposed gross waste and mismanagement and they retaliated against him for doing it,” said Boyer’s attorney, Rick Barry.
Those payments lasted four years, costing taxpayers nearly $20,000, the suit claims. Boyer’s ex-wife didn’t know she was still listed on his plan, according to the suit. Boyer reported the error in October, when he tried to add his new wife to his medical plan, the suit says.
Boyer claims he heard nothing more until he received a letter from Sammons on Jan. 4 notifying him that an investigation had been launched to determine why he hadn’t ended his ex-wife’s medical benefits. Boyer responded in a letter dated the following day that he had notified the district and had even joked in the past with Sammons that he had saved the district money by getting a divorce, ending its obligation to pay her insurance. He also claimed that she had answered a question about how child support was being deducted from his paycheck.
Sammons on Tuesday referred all questions to the district’s legal counsel, Dennis Tesreau of Hillsboro. He could not be reached for comment.
Barry alleges that his client was treated differently than another paramedic in the same situation. The district paid premiums for Stephanie Franklin’s ex-husband after Franklin had removed him from her plan, according to documents provided by Barry. That error allegedly cost the district almost another $20,000. Franklin found and reported the error in February, but she did not lose her job. Barry said Boyer was targeted for being the first to expose the errors.
Boyer has since been hired by the Ste. Genevieve County Ambulance District, where he works part time.
Republished with permission of St. Louis Post-Dispatch