The state Appeals Court has upheld the firing of two Middleton Jail correctional officers over their sanctioning of violent, racist posts targeting Sheriff Frank Cousins, his supporters and his family on a union-run Internet message board six years ago.
The posts, which were authored by a third employee who was also fired, suggested that Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin, James Earl Ray, could "help" the Essex County Correctional Officers Association resolve its disputes with Cousins, who is African-American.
In addition to being fired, the author of those posts, Scott Thompson, was subsequently convicted of criminal harassment. Two union officials were also fired.
The decision Wednesday found that an earlier order by an arbitrator to rehire those officials, former union president Jerry Enos and webmaster K. Ricky Thompson, "contravenes the well-defined and dominant public policy against race and sex discrimination."
Because of that, Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy, who called the comments "egregiously offensive to any notion of human decency," had the authority to overturn that arbitrator's award, a three-member panel of the Appeals Court said in the unpublished decision.
While Massachusetts courts have generally ruled that the decisions of an arbitrator are final and binding, "regardless of how erroneous they may appear," the Appeals Court said that in some circumstances, including in this case, judges do have the authority to overrule an arbitrator.
"Non-discrimination is integral to the proper performance of the duties of the employees, who are correctional officers," said the panel, which included Justices Joseph Grasso, Gary Katzmann and Peter Rubin.
The justices rejected the union's contentions that Enos and Ricky Thompson were not aware that they could be fired as a result of the posts by Scott Thompson. Lawyers for the sheriff had noted that not only were there policies spelled out in the employee handbook but that another employee, former jail Lt. Kevin O'Leary, had been fired in 1999 for forwarding an email with an image of Cousins in the crosshairs and a caption stating "pull the trigger on," followed by a racial epithet.
Cousins, who lives in Newburyport, said he was pleased to learn of the Appeals Court ruling, saying that the types of racially motivated comments and threats he's endured "shouldn't be happening."
