By Susan Daker
Mobile Register (Alabama)
Copyright 2007 The Mobile Press Register Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The woman who filed the complaint that sparked the dismissal of a Mobile Fire-Rescue Department employee testified Thursday before the Personnel Board that she heard a racial slur used repeatedly during one of her paramedic training rotations.
“It was used freely,” Michelle Casper said in sworn testimony. “I know that Ken Henderson said it.”
In her written complaint, however, and in her subsequent interviews with fire officials, Casper never singled out the person who uttered the slurs Oct. 1 at an Airport Boulevard fire station, she acknowledged Thursday.
Casper testified that she was certain all along that Henderson used the word “n----r” at least once.
“I didn’t want anyone to get fired,” Casper said.
Henderson was fired Jan. 22, and he later appealed the decision to the Mobile County Personnel Board. The board convened Tuesday for the appeal hearing, which was continued briefly on Thursday.
Two city officials have said they believed this was the first case of a Fire-Rescue dismissal that stemmed from a reported racial slur.
On Tuesday, Assistant Chief Billy Pappas said he recommended that Henderson be fired and Mayor Sam Jones approved the decision.
The department has dealt with a series of federal lawsuits alleging racism and reverse racism in recent years, much of which followed disputes about hiring and promotions practices.
Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hansberry testified Tuesday that fire officials only found evidence to prove one particular use of the racial slur on that day. Three black firemen who were paramedic trainees at Bishop State Community College were called the “dumbest n----rs that work in the department,” according to Casper’s letter.
Casper testified that she complained because she didn’t feel comfortable at the station and did not want to continue to shadow Henderson and another paramedic, Albert Campbell.
When questioned by Henderson’s attorney, Edward Smith, Casper admitted that there were some discrepancies about the sequences of events in her letter to the department. She also said she had received a bad evaluation from Campbell.
But Casper testified that Campbell’s evaluation of her focused primarily on Bishop State’s failure to prepare its students for the job.
On Tuesday, Henderson testified that Casper was unprepared for her rotation and did know not enough about certain medications. He said he had become increasingly frustrated by a lack of preparation shown by Bishop State paramedic students.
Casper said Thursday that she knew she wasn’t properly prepared.
After Smith finished questioning her, city attorney Ashton Hill asked her one question.
“Ms. Casper, do you have a college degree in English or journalism?” Hill asked, an in effort to show why her written complaint may have been confusing.
Casper said no. Hill rested his case.
Arthur Madden, the Personnel Board’s attorney, then granted each side time to give closing arguments, something typically not allowed in an appeals hearing.
In Hill’s argument, he said the city fired Henderson because he lied about using the racial slur.
Henderson had made what Hill termed a “non-denial admission” to fire officials when he said in a taped interview that if his co-workers “said I said it, then I guess I said it.”
Also in the interview, Henderson apologized, said “I did not mean to say” the slur and that he did not remember using it. On Tuesday Henderson denied that he used the slur and said he lied because he felt that others’ jobs were in jeopardy.
“He tried to cover it up. He did that at the risk of others,” Hill said.
Hill accused Henderson’s lawyer of using “smoke screens,” by playing up the fact that fire officials had heard the word used before but had never punished anyone for it.
On Tuesday, three high-ranking fire officials said they had heard the slur from department employees but had never filed a complaint about it.
During Smith’s closing argument, he said the board should reinstate Henderson because he has 13 years of service with the department of 450-500 firefighters.
Smith, also pointed to other witnesses: “Let’s see who lied. Everybody lied,” he said.
Part of the fire administration’s investigation into the incident included a polygraph test, which indicated deception by Henderson, Campbell and other firefighters, according to the fire department.
Campbell admitted Tuesday that he had originally lied to officials about having heard the slur. He said he had lied to cover for Henderson.
Capt. Mike Revere, who also took the lie detector test, testified Tuesday that Campbell had told him he heard the slur but later said he had been mistaken.
“What happens to the buck stopped here?” Smith said.
Smith also accused Casper of lying because she had not implicated Henderson specifically before Thursday’s hearing.
Campbell, Revere and another firefighter, Leon Snipes, were suspended without pay for a short time in relation to Casper’s complaint, according to their testimony and personnel documents.
Campbell got the longest suspension -- 72 hours -- without pay starting on Feb. 22.
Revere appealed his 24-hour suspension to the board and was scheduled to have a hearing 9 a.m. Thursday but dropped that appeal, Hill said.
The three men all received letters that said: “Please be aware that further violations of rules governing your employment will result in more stringent disciplinary measures against you.”
The Personnel Board has 14 days from Thursday to make a ruling on whether to reinstate Henderson, according to Madden.
The three firefighters, Terence Bridges, B.D. Jackson and Edgar English, who were the objects of the slur, told the Press-Register they have not received an apology from anyone in the department.
“If they rehire this guy, they are going to create more racial tension,” Bridges said after the hearing Thursday.