By Jordan Fouts
The Elkhart Truth
ELKHART, Ind. — A career firefighter for the City of Elkhart is appealing a decision by the Fire Merit Commission to take him off paramedic duties and impose other sanctions following a harassment complaint from a nurse.
Jason Lantz, a member of the Elkhart Fire Department since 2004, was placed on 30 days of unpaid suspension and permanently removed from paramedic duties in an Aug. 25 decision by the board. Lantz was brought before the board following a Nov. 6 incident at Elkhart General Hospital during which he allegedly intimidated a nurse as she was caring for patients.
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“Jason Lantz is a predator. He preys on the nurses of Elkhart General Hospital. Over the past six or more years, Lantz has created a hostile and unsafe environment for the nurses where they cannot escape his unwanted advances,” Deputy City Attorney Kevin Davis said during an Aug. 22 special meeting. “Intimidation and fear are his tools for getting the nurses to give in to him.”
Davis alleged that on other occasions ,Lantz used a department ambulance to follow and intimidate a nurse in a parking lot and that he was once disciplined for striking a patient in his care. The city moved to fire Lantz on grounds including immoral conduct, conduct injurious to the public welfare and discourteous behavior to the public.
“Lantz’s aggressive behavior is not new. It is in fact part of a dangerous pattern that could escalate into a dangerous situation,” Davis said. “Lantz does not understand nor comprehend the responsibilities he has as an Elkhart firefighter. In fact, he’s proven to be a liability to the city.”
Lantz argues that the merit board’s decision was arbitrary and a violation of Indiana law. He is asking the court to reverse the board’s decision in its entirety, in particular its decision to bar him from serving as a paramedic.
“Paramedic is not an actual job position within the Fire Department. Barring Lantz from using his paramedic’s skill set is not a demotion,” states the complaint, which was filed in Elkhart County Circuit Court by attorney Patrick O’Leary. “Moreover, it is contrary to public policy because it potentially puts the public at risk. There will likely come a time when Lantz’s paramedic skills will be needed to save a life.”
Lantz was off-duty when he entered through the ambulance door, using a key code given to first responders, while visiting a friend who was injured in a car crash, according to his court filing. A nurse complained to hospital security that he had used the ambulance door instead of the public entrance while off-duty, and the hospital notified the fire department, according to the court filing.
O’Leary said during the Aug. 22 hearing that Lantz’s conduct might have been less than ideal, but it wasn’t enough to terminate him.
“Mr. Lantz was off-duty in the ER, and he had a discussion with this nurse. Never touched her, never intimidated her. He asked her questions,” O’Leary said. “He told her, ‘I’m here to see the female patient in room such-and-such.’ It’s highly likely the one nurse told (the other) the purpose of his visit. It’s highly likely that that upset her and led to her complaint.”
Lantz argues that firefighters routinely use the ambulance entrance while off-duty and have never drawn complaints from hospital staff. He also admits that other ER personal have expressed “annoyance and irritation” at him but “nothing more substantive.”
Lantz argues as well that it was prejudicial to his case that surveillance footage at the hospital was not secured by the city and was allowed to be erased. And he says he was charged under a 2003 version of the city handbook which is no longer applied to members of the fire department.
O’Leary said at the hearing that there were “hard feelings” toward Lantz among other nurses with whom he was in an intimate relationship. He said the nurse who lodged the intimidation allegations from Nov. 6 told a colleague of Lantz’s, “with a smirk on her face,” that, “’I’m coming after your boy’s job.’”
“Before that videotape was erased, the hospital took the time to review it and pick out scenes and made screenshots,” O’Leary said. “Nowhere in any of those screenshots is this alleged intimidation, pinning the nurse in a closet or whatever it was. Doesn’t appear. They went through the video, picked out what they wanted to preserve. And if that incident happened, it’s not on a screenshot. And you have to ask yourself, why not?”
While the board agreed on sanctioning Lantz, it voted not to uphold Fire Chief Rodney Dale’s recommendation to end Lantz’s employment.
“Based on some of the scenarios, as a board, we’ve been faced with – we’ve had an incident where a gun was pulled out, somebody’s face was ripped off – I have a problem with this level of punishment, based on what actually transpired,” Board President Mandy Lazenby said. “And I feel like there needs to be some sort of scale of punishment.”
The fire chief imposed additional sanctions in a directive that followed the board’s vote. Those include banning Lantz from being assigned to any ambulance unit or from responding to any fire calls at the hospital, and he must go to a different medical facility for non-emergency health matters.
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