© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(November 5) — The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston upheld a Harris County jury decision last week that a local school district violated one of its ex-peace officer’s rights under the Texas Whistleblower Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
The opinion also affirmed more than $900,000 in attorneys’ fees and damages for Looper Reed & McGraw attorneys Jim Reed and Mitch Ackal and their client, Troy Perry.
The case has been part of a seven-year legal battle that may be finally over – if the other side doesn’t successfully appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Texas, that is.
“I think it would be a waste of time and money to try to get the Texas Supreme Court to take it, [but] I fully expect that might be what they do,” Reed said.
The case dates back to early 2006, when Perry filed a lawsuit against the Alief Independent School District on claims that AISD terminated his employment in retaliation against him for reporting law violations by two other police officers.
AISD hired Perry in 2004 to join its police force as a gang officer to address gang-related activity in AISD schools. In 2005, Perry wrote a traffic ticket to an AISD teacher, which he claimed was confiscated by his former captain, Dan Turner, and former sergeant, Henry Bonaparte, because the teacher was a friend of Turner’s and “politically connected,” according to the Court of Appeals’ Oct. 31 opinion.
After being demoted from gang officer to patrol officer, Perry filed a grievance with AISD on claims that he was demoted partially because he ticketed the teacher. When the school district failed to respond, he filed a formal complaint in October 2005 with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, reporting Turner and Bonaparte’s destruction of the traffic ticket.
A few weeks later, Perry was fired. When Perry filed the lawsuit in 2006, he also claimed that the police officers and AISD violated his due process and freedom of speech rights. When his title was still gang officer, Perry claimed he also received grief from Bonaparte for communicating with local officials about a rumored gang war that would involve Houston gang members.
In November 2011, a Harris County issued a verdict in Perry’s favor, awarding him $62,500 in lost wages, $325,000 in mental anguish damages, and $468,445 in attorney’s fees. Post-judgment interest has caused the amount to exceed $900,000, Reed said.
AISD’s appeal of the verdict was rejected by the Fourteenth Court of Appeals last week.
“To finally get this affirmation from the Court of Appeals feels very good, and it will mean a great deal to Troy once we finally collect the money,” Reed said.
J. Erik Nichols of Rogers, Morris & Grover in Houston is the legal counsel for AISD, Bonaparte and Turner.
Nichols could not be reached for comment.
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