EXTRA CONTENT: Laid off Corbin police officers file lawsuit against city

Read the full text of the lawsuit by clicking here.

Two former Corbin police officers, laid off recently as part of a budget cutting effort on the part of the city, have filed a lawsuit claiming they were improperly terminated and are asking for their old jobs back.

Jonathan Dean and Robert Kyle Gray filed the civil complaint in Whitley Circuit Court September 8. The city of Corbin, it’s mayor and city commissioners are all named as defendants.

Dean and Gray were hired as Corbin police officers in 2012 and both signed reimbursement agreements that essentially obligated them to pay back the salary they earned during an 18-week training period if they leave the force before serving at least three years. All newly hired officers with the city attend police training school at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond unless they are already certified and trained law enforcement officers at the time they are hired.

In the complaint, Gray and Dean contend the agreement essentially guarantees them three year’s of employment with the city, provided they aren’t terminated for some other cause.

Corbin City Attorney Bob Hammons said he “could not comment” on the case or the details of the agreement, and that all arguments would be made in court.

The agreement requires officers to work for the city for at least three years before leaving in order to avoid paying training wages, but does not promise employment on the part of the city.

The lawsuit points out that Dean is a college graduate with a clean disciplinary record. Gray was an experienced officer who “worked for three different Sheriffs in Laurel County … and as a state certified fireman for approximately 10 years.”

According to the lawsuit, Gray had asked city leaders for a “lateral transfer to an open position as a fireman with the Corbin Fire Department and was denied same in a discriminator, retaliatory act by the Defendant. The Defendant advised they had an individual under consideration for that position.”

The city hired five new officers in 2012, but decided this year, after two fiscal years of budget woes, to reduce the department by four officers from 24 to 20. The City Commission voted in August to make the move.

Two of the officers who would have been laid off found jobs with other area departments prior to the city’s decision to reduce its workforce.

The lawsuit says the officers were terminated “without due process of law” and in violation of laws that protect police officers in Kentucky. It asks for a judgment against the city for compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $5,000, that Gray and Dean be re-employed as city police officers for the remainder of the three-year term and payment of attorney expenses.

Both are being represented in the case by Corbin attorney David O. Smith.

No formal response in the case has yet been filed on behalf of the city.