City of Fort Worth awards former police chief $5 million settlement in whistleblower case
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Fort Worth City Council has approved a multimillion-dollar settlement involving its former police chief and his wrongful termination lawsuit.
The few people who spoke at Tuesday’s Fort Worth city council meeting said the settlement brings closure, but they still voiced their disappointment that it happened to begin with.
A five-year legal battle between the city of Fort Worth and its former top cop reached the finish line.
The city council unanimously voted to pass an agreement to pay $9.6 million in total to three former employees, including former police chief Joel Fitzgerald, to settle their whistleblower lawsuits against the city.
The settlement comes after costly legal battles involving Fitzgerald and former IT employees, William Birchett and Ronald Burke, who sued the city saying they were fired for retaliation for reporting city violations.
Fitzgerald says he was fired in 2019 right before he was set to meet with FBI investigators.
Attorney Stephen Kennedy represented the three former employees and was there during the mediation with the city.
"I think it's fair to say that both sides had disagreements over what the facts showed," he said.
Kennedy says Fitzgerald will receive $5.2 million from the settlement, Birchett will receive $2.4 million and Burke will get $2 million.
"It is an acceptable resolution and one that everyone found to be acceptable during the time of the mediation," Kennedy said.
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Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker released a statement following the vote saying, "It is both exhausting and unnecessary to continue discussing an individual who has not been employed by the city for over five years. It is time to leave this where it belongs — in the past."
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Fitzgerald also released a statement following the settlement approval.
"After five long years, I would just like to continue my career without the stigma associated with the city’s termination memo, and this settlement speaks to that issue," he said. "I would have loved to finish my career serving Ft. Worth as chief of police, but the reality is that sometimes doing the right thing when no one is looking is tough, and there are repercussions. You only have limited opportunities in life to uphold your family name and this was mine."
The city of Fort Worth continues to deny liability in the three cases.