CITY SETTLES LAWSUIT

UPDATE: We thought we had scooped everyone on this but The Record article can be found here. As expected, Crawley attacks Fitzgerald but not Owens. This bodes well for contract negotiations.

No. Not Joseph's House, the Brian Owens Federal suit.

According to the May 13, 2005 Record article, damages were alleged to be approximately $2000.

The lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount, but the total allegedly being withheld is estimated to less than $2,000."They want to offer him a pro-rated amount for time he was working as a police officer and not the time he was deployed," said Troy Police Benevolent Association President Robert Fitzgerald. "We are embarrassed for the city that Brian has had to go this route."

Last May, after the story broke, Councilman William Dunne introduced a resolution to authorizing the city to pay Owens the money being withheld. The resolution did not make it out of the Law Committee. Dunne was accused of being partisan and doing nothing more than looking for headlines.

Also, according to the article:

"Hank Bauer is dealing with the problem, and he was listening to us. But for some reason the city opted to not have him handle the case any longer."

So, Dunne is ignored and Bauer is pulled off the case. That's all well and good because now the case is settled (we wonder where Mitchell's "No pay position" was on this case).

Owen's attorneys, Gleason, Dunn, Walsh & O'Shea will receive $7,500:

Owen's will receive $7,500.

Let's do the math!

$7,500 + $7,500 = more than $2,000.

Finally, we'd like to hear Deputy Dan's take on all this. Recently, he had this to say about Joseph's House suit against the city:

If Joseph's House is suing the City of Troy, the only people who will pay are the people who own homes, and the taxpayers will get hurt." - The Record, February 24, 2006

Let's see what words he has for Brian Owens, a police officer that sued the city.