July 03--Fired Norton police officer Nicholas Matheny has filed a federal lawsuit, contending city officials discriminated against him and violated his civil rights by terminating him because of his Muslim faith.
The suit, seeking job reinstatement, a court injunction to end the alleged discrimination and damages for lost pay, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
Matheny, 30, adopted the Muslim faith in early 2010 and initially kept the conversion quiet, according to the suit, because of anti-Islamic sentiment in the police department, including emails he said he received from his direct supervising officer.
But in September 2010, when Matheny handed out wedding invitations to two colleagues, with the heading "May Allah Bless This Marriage," the alleged discrimination came to a head, the suit said.
Just as Matheny was ending his final shift before his wedding, the suit said, Chief Thad Hete told him he would be fired.
When Matheny returned from his honeymoon, Hete and the city's chief administrator, Richard A. Ryland, attempted to convince him to quit his job by allegedly threatening to place backdated warnings in his police file if he did not leave quietly, the suit said.
Matheny refused to quit and was fired in November 2010.
The city and Hete were named as principal defendants.
Matheny's attorney, Subodh Chandra, a former federal prosecutor and Cleveland law director, said Monday that Hete is the "main issue."
"He terminated Officer Matheny because Officer Matheny became a Muslim as part of his sincere religious conversion. And when Chief Hete became aware of that, all of the sudden Officer Matheny went from being described as an excellent patrolman for the city to supposedly being somebody who was so bad he had to be terminated," Chandra said.
There is only one conceivable explanation for the alleged shift in attitude, "which is discrimination," Chandra said.
Hete and city law director Peter Kostoff both said they had not seen the 22-page suit and, therefore, could not comment on the allegations.
Since Matheny was fired, the suit went on to say, Hete has stated that Matheny would be filing his "towelheaded terrorist lawsuit any day now."
Chandra said there will be witness testimony on that specific comment, and it will come to light as the suit progresses.
"There simply is no place for a law enforcement agency to engage in that kind of behavior and discrimination. This is America and that kind of conduct is un-American," he said.
Before Matheny became a Muslim, Chandra said, he received no disciplinary write-ups in his personnel file.
Judge Christopher A. Boyko, who sits on the federal bench in Cleveland, has been assigned to handle the case.
Matheny, who began his career with Norton police in 2004, also has a pending civil suit seeking job reinstatement in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
City officials have appealed Judge Judy Hunter's order sending the case to arbitration.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or at [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
