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FHP Must Rehire Veteran Fired Over Motorist Claims

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

The Florida Highway Patrol has been ordered to reinstate Capt. Gregory Lamont, a 26-year veteran fired in 2007 after motorists accused him of striking their car during a 2006 traffic stop.

The ruling, issued last week by members of the state Public Employees Relations Commission, came three months after a Pasco County jury acquitted Lamont of a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge stemming from the same incident.

The commission ruling instructs the patrol to rehire Lamont and place him in the same position he had before his dismissal, or one of similar responsibility. Lamont, 46, of Brooksville, also will receive back pay and benefits, according to the order.

Before his firing, Lamont was in charge of the Land O' Lakes District, which includes Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties.

Highway patrol spokesman Mark Welch was checking Lamont's status, but did not return a call before press time Monday. Brooksville lawyer George Angeliadis, who represented Lamont at the criminal trial and in his administrative appeal, did not return a call seeking comment.

Lamont's ordeal began Sept. 3, 2006, when he stopped a 1995 Toyota Avalon driven by Nicole Hall and a 2002 Mercury Sable driven by her boyfriend, Hussein Ahmad Atris.

Both were speeding on Interstate 75 in Pasco County. A trooper in a highway patrol aircraft clocked both cars at 83 mph in a 70-mph zone. Lamont activated his car's lights and sirens and attempted to stop the vehicles.

Instead of pulling off the road, Hall and Atris stopped in the left lane. Lamont parked his unmarked car in the median, got out and began yelling and waving Hall and Atris off the road and into the median.

That's where the stories diverged. At the criminal trial, Lamont testified he may have used a loud voice to direct the cars off the road; otherwise, he said, he simply wrote Hall and Atris citations and sent them on their way.

Hall and Atris testified that Lamont used abusive language and called Atris "brain dead" after making the stop. They also said Lamont struck the rear driver's side of Atris' Sable, causing more than $1,000 in damage. The couple testified they discovered the damage when they stopped for gas in Georgia later that day.

But they could not remember basic facts on the stand, such as the color of the trooper's car or the color of his uniform. Hall struggled to identify Lamont in the courtroom, and Atris turned hostile when questioned by Angeliadis.

The jury deliberated 40 minutes before finding Lamont not guilty.

After the verdict, Lamont continued pursuing an administrative appeal of his firing he had filed with the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission in 2007. A hearing officer heard the case in May and on June 10 issued a recommendation that Lamont be rehired by the highway patrol.

The officer took exception to conflicts in the testimony of Atris and Hall, and found no reason to believe their stories.

Members of the commission adopted the hearing officer's findings last week, making them final.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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