Current Gulfport Police Officer Jonathon Ross (pictured) and former officer Ray Marshall filed separate lawsuits against the city and police department in November 2020 and July 2021, respectively.
Gulfport Police Department
The City of Gulfport entered 2022 defending its police department against two lawsuits from current and former officers: One that alleges disability discrimination and one that alleges illegal retaliation from a current and a former police officer.
Current Gulfport Police Officer Jonathon Ross and former officer Ray Marshall filed separate lawsuits against the city and police department in November 2020 and July 2021, respectively.
The city denies those ongoing claims in court filings and internal documents provided to The Gabber.
Tampa employment attorney Bradley Tobin represents both Ross and Marshall. He expects to see depositions and the discovery process start in earnest in 2022 for Ross’ Americans with Disabilities Act claim and Marshall’s disability discrimination and retaliation suit against the City of Gulfport and Gulfport police.
Both suits also claim disability discrimination violations via the Florida Civil Rights Act.
Jonathan Ross
Ross’ mediation hearing will take place on March 9, 2022, according to court records.
Ross started with the Gulfport Police in March 2014. He had a motorcycle accident in 2018.
Ross filed suit against the City and police alleging violations of the ADA over his treatment by the department regarding his medical condition. The ADA offers workplace protections to workers with disabilities and medical conditions.
“As a result of (the) plaintiff’s physical health issues he was required to seek various accommodations and benefits, including necessary leave time to attend medical and therapy appointments,” reads the lawsuit filed in federal court in Tampa.
Ross’ suit alleges he has been “unnecessarily” questioned by police supervisors about medical appointments and leave and that he has been treated “in a hostile and accusatory manner.”
He filed the initial complaint in Nov. 2020; he updated the complaint in March 2021.
The ADA suit contends Ross suffered from “unwarranted discipline” and ”retaliatory disparate treatment with regard to promotion opportunities.”
The latter centers on the 2019 process Gulfport police used for a promotion to sergeant. The ADA lawsuit calls the process unfair and says the department “maliciously” manipulated the process to disfavor Ross.
City and GPD records provided to The Gabber show Ross also faced internal sanctions.
Gulfport officials — including City Manager Jim O’Reilly, Police Chief Robert Vincent and Police Commander Mary Farrand — declined to comment on the Ross and Marshall lawsuits, citing “ongoing litigation.”
The city has denied the allegations in both cases, according to court filings.
“All employment actions taken by the City with regards to Plaintiff and his employment were taken for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons unrelated to his alleged disability and/or any asserted protected conduct,” the City said in its responses to both the Ross and Marshall lawsuits.
The city also claims Ross did not properly report alleged ADA violations and other concerns.
“The Plaintiff unreasonably failed to report and/or delayed reporting any alleged harassment as required by the Defendant’s policy and practice prohibiting such harassment and, as a result, the Defendant was not provided with the opportunity to take prompt corrective action regarding the alleged harassment,” the City wrote in federal court filings.
Gulfport also seeks attorneys fees in both lawsuits.
A March 2020 memo from Vincent to O’Reilly further outlines Ross’ complaints.
Those include notes from a January 2020 interview Vincent conducted with Ross after Tobin contacted City in November 2019, indicating a potential disability discrimination lawsuit.
Tobin’s letter also referenced whether Vincent wanted more documentation on Ross’ performance after he received low scores in the promotion process to potentially justify that determination or for a termination.
The City denies that claim; Vincent said there was no evidence of that directive in an internal investigation.
Ross had also served in GPD’s Marine Unit and voiced concerns about the condition of – and resources allocated to – Gulfport’s police boat.
In an internal interview with Vincent on Jan. 28, 2020, Ross told the chief he’d been hassled over sick leave and vacation time requests after his motorcycle accident, was unfairly written up for having a dirty police vehicle and was put at an unfair disadvantage and was disparaged in the promotional process for sergeant.
Vincent interviewed Ross’ supervisors and other officers as part of that internal inquiry, including some negative comments other police personnel allegedly made about Ross, according to City documents.
The chief concluded that Ross’ contentions of mistreatment and an unfair promotion process were “unfounded”. Vincent said he made the promotion process determination evaluators focused on “aptitude for leadership.”
Vincent forwarded Ross’ claim of being “paper-trailed” to document his performance to O’Reilly for further review. Vincent told O’Reilly there were no indications of such an order after conducting an e-mail search over the preceding 24 months and interviewing other officers.
Cynthia Sass, a certified federal mediator and managing partner of Tampa-based Sass Law Firm, will hold the mediation hearing in the Ross case March 9.
Tobin said the Ross and Marshall cases center on how GPD treats officers and handles personnel concerns.
“They should follow their own rules, their own procedures. They should be dealing with these guys fairly,” Tobin said. He expects depositions and discovery requests for Ross’ case – and Ray Marshall’s – in 2022.
Ray Marshall
Marshall filed his disability discrimination claim against the city in Pinellas Circuit Court in July, in which he claimed the department mistreated him at work and wrongly terminated him in 2019. The suit alleges disability discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act.
Marshall worked as a Gulfport police officer from 2014 until 2019. The civil lawsuit claims mistreatment during his tenure stemming from his medical condition and leave requests for doctors’ appointments.
“(The) plaintiff was discriminated against due to his health-related issues and conditions and retaliated against for seeking accommodations related to the same,” Marshall’s lawsuit reads.
A key aspect of the case concerns doctors’ appointments Marshall had in April 2019 and a police training class during that time frame. Marshall contends he mixed up the dates of two medical appointments when asking for leave, thus, he missed the training class.
GPD conducted an internal investigation over whether Marshall told the truth about those appointments.
The civil lawsuit also claims Vincent told Marshall he could resign or get fired, with either choice potentially barring Marshall from a future career in law enforcement. The City denies this in court filings.
“Marshall experienced great mental anguish, anxiety, and distress that day; so much so that he was detained in a mental health facility under the state’s Baker Act. That same day Defendant terminated Marshall’s employment,” the lawsuit says.
The city’s response to the that provision also alleges Marshall “made threats of violence against members of the City” during that distress, according to a court filing submitted by the city’s attorneys Nov. 23, 2021.
Tobin has not yet responded to questions about the city’s contention.
Marshall’s lawsuit calls the city’s process for his termination unfair, and that it should not have included information from a 2015 investigation related to Marshall’s initial job application.
Marshall argues the city and police department violated the state’s civil rights law and protections for workers with disabilities by “treating him in a harassing, hostile, and disparate manner, terminating his employment and by otherwise discriminating against him.”
O’Reilly reaffirmed the decision to fire Marshall in June 2019 after the officer and police officers’ union challenged the action, according to records. O’Reilly referenced an April 2019 incident, alleging the officer was “witnessed (discovered) sleeping in his marked patrol car on April 4, 2019,” records reveal.
At a June 5 internal police review, Marshall said “he had been having sleepless nights due to a family member being ill.”
That incident and the alleged discrepancies over medical appointments and a missed training class resulted in the termination, according to police documents.
The city also denies Marshall’s other contentions in court filings and argues the former officer did not have a “legally cognizable disability” under the state statute.