Oklahoma AG’s Former Top Investigator Wins Disability Bias Trial

The Oklahoma legal professional common’s workplace didn’t accommodate its former chief investigator, who was experiencing coronary heart points, in violation of the Rehabilitation Act and owes him $37,762 for the bias, a federal jury within the state dominated.

Terry Cronkite had undergone triple bypass surgical procedure roughly 9 years earlier than he requested in 2019 to stay within the chief investigator function after the state proposed transferring him right into a drug process power job, based on the Might 2 opinion by the US District Courtroom for the Western District of Oklahoma that despatched his case to trial.

He was 70 years previous and was being handled for hypertension, excessive ldl cholesterol, and coronary artery illness, Cronkite mentioned. He believed the drug process power place could be too bodily demanding and he informed first assistant AG Daybreak Money and one other supervisor he couldn’t do the job. He refused to simply accept the switch and was fired, Cronkite mentioned.

Following a four-day trial, the jury discovered Thursday that the state didn’t fairly accommodate Cronkite and Choose Charles B. Goodwin entered judgment in Cronkite’s favor on his failure-to-accommodate declare.

However the state was entitled to judgment on Cronkite’s discriminatory termination and retaliation claims underneath the Rehabilitation Act and the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination Act, Goodwin mentioned. The decide had granted abstract judgment in opposition to Cronkite on these claims as a part of the Might 2 ruling.

Hammons Hurst & Associates and Ward & Glass LLP represented Cronkite. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC represented Oklahoma.

The case is Cronkite v. Okla. Att’y Gen., W.D. Okla., No. 5:20-cv-00250, jury verdict 7/21/22.