Michael Lynn sues Lansing over 2021 termination over police chief phone number posting
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
LANSING — A former firefighter is again suing the city over a termination and is alleging that race played a role, according to a new federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, names the city of Lansing and Mayor Andy Schor as defendants and seeks an amount in excess of $75,000 in damages.
Former firefighter Michael Lynn, who is Black, has alleged that he was harassed and discriminated against for his race and was fired for using his free speech rights on his personal time to criticize city police actions.
In a statement, city spokesperson Scott Bean said the lawsuit is from a "disgruntled former employee who continues to waste taxpayer resources by filing a lawsuit on a termination that has already been challenged and decided."
In a separate grievance process over Lynn's 2021 termination that concluded in January 2023, an arbitrator upheld the city's termination of Lynn's employment. His attorney said at the time they'd look into other options.
Scott Batey, Lynn's attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bean said the city will vigorously defend the lawsuit.
"The city has not been served, but our attorneys will review it and respond vigorously," Bean said in a statement. "Normally we do not comment on active litigation, however, this issue has been grieved and arbitrated through a process the plaintiff agreed to and fully participated in. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the city and that the city acted properly in his termination. Mayor Schor has no involvement in termination decisions against any firefighter, including this one."
The city fired Lynn from the Lansing Fire Department in 2021 after he published former Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green's city-issued cell phone number. He published it after Lansing Police Department made a since-deleted Facebook post honoring a police dog killed in 1999, without naming Aldric McKinstry Jr., the Black 18-year-old police shot and killed in the same incident. McKinstry was a friend of Lynn's.
Lynn's lawsuit says he was acting in a personal capacity on his own time and within his First Amendment rights when he posted the phone number in January 2021 to encourage people "to contact Chief Green to voice their displeasure with him for posting the photo."
The lawsuit says that the city police had posted a similar message about six months prior and had taken that post down.
"The African-American community was again outraged and hurt because the city knew and understood the hurtful nature of the post," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also says Lynn was subject to different treatment in the fire department based on his race.
Lynn has sued the city successfully previously.
Lynn filed a federal lawsuit in January 2019 alleging the city retaliated against him with disciplinary action after he complained about racism in the fire department.
In March of 2022, U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney dismissed part of Lynn's suit, saying Lynn failed to prove he suffered an adverse employment action. But Maloney said Lynn's hostile work environment claim could continue, saying the city didn't properly address Lynn's claims about harassment, discrimination and a hostile work environment.
A jury unanimously awarded Lynn $1 million in that lawsuit for the hostile work environment claim.
The city said it would contest that ruling and request a new trial from the judge, but no updates have been made to the court record since December. It is not clear if the city has paid that judgement.
Bean said the city is still pursuing an appeal into the earlier lawsuit.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michael Lynn sues Lansing, mayor over 2021 termination
