Stonington loses another round in DiCesare case
Stonington — The town has lost another battle in its costly legal fight against fired highway supervisor Louis DiCesare.
On Monday, New London Superior Court Judge Kimberly Knox rejected the town’s appeal of an arbitrator’s decision that overturned the town’s five-day suspension of DiCesare.
Arbitrator Peter Adomeit had ruled in DiCesare’s favor because the town did not let him have union representation at his suspension hearing.
Adomeit's decision found that before DiCesare’s hearing with Public Works Director Barbara McKrell, a police officer told DiCesare’s union representative that if she did not leave, she would be arrested.
Adomeit wrote in his decision that the town’s refusal to allow DiCesare union representation was a unilateral denial by the town of his rights. He ordered the town to pay DiCesare five days’ pay totaling about $1,500 and remove the suspension from his record.
Judge Knox pointed out that Adomeit had found a failure of due process by the town and that the arbitration hearing provided for a full hearing of all legal and factual issues. The town had argued the arbitrator ignored other procedures provided to DiCesare both before and after he was denied union representation.
In 2015, McKrell first suspended, then fired DiCesare, citing a list of expensive errors she said he made on projects and said that he was insubordinate when he told her he did not trust her. DiCesare disputed the charges in a written rebuttal.
After his firing, DiCesare filed three union grievances and a civil rights lawsuit that is pending in U.S. District Court. As of March, the town had spent $265,000 in legal fees on the first grievance, while the town’s insurance carrier had spent $76,000 on the beginning stages of the lawsuit. The town has spent additional funds since then on the appeal and is expected to expend more as the other two grievances are heard.
The unsuccessful appeal was filed by town Labor Attorney Meredith Diette, who replaced attorney Michael Satti on the case last month. Satti had handled the DiCesare case from the beginning.
Acting First Selectman John Prue said Thursday that the town could not comment on the decision, as it has not yet been debriefed on it by Diette.
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