MONTICELLO — The Sullivan County Legislature has empowered the county attorney to settle a federal case brought by a former county correction officer against Sheriff Mike Schiff.
MONTICELLO — The Sullivan County Legislature has empowered the county attorney to settle a federal case brought by a former county correction officer against Sheriff Mike Schiff.
Lillian Allen sued Schiff and the county government in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after she was fired in May 2010 stemming from a June 2007 drug test where she tested positive for marijuana. In court documents, Allen, who is black, has claimed the firing was motivated by her gender and race. She further alleged that the county botched the drug test and didn’t follow procedures. The suit claims damages exceed $100,000.
The case has been in mediation since June.
The Legislature passed a resolution last week, acknowledging “there are certain litigation risks and costs that an appropriate settlement could be in the county’s best interest.”
County Attorney Sam Yasgur said the move was procedural.
“Federal court procedure requires going through a mediator, and in the meantime I have to have some settlement authority,” Yasgur said. “Whether there will be a settlement or not, I have no idea. It could take a couple of months.”
Allen’s Manhattan attorney, Colleen Meenan, wrote to U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti in July that she was “cautiously optimistic” a settlement could be reached. Meenan and Allen couldn’t be reached for comment.
In June 2010, the then 47-year-old Allen, a longtime correction officer with a clean work record raising three children on her own, told the Times Herald-Record that the ordeal had caused her marriage to fall apart. She was initially fired in 2007 within a week of the positive test. But the county reversed itself and converted this to an indefinite suspension, holding hearings before an arbitrator as required by a union contract.
Allen admitted during those hearings to using marijuana one time to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. The arbitrator found that she wasn’t a habitual drug user and that firing her was overly harsh punishment. He recommended reinstating her.
But the county brought civil service charges in 2009 against Allen and used her testimony admitting to the one-time use against her. The county has denied in court documents any bias in the firing. Yasgur wrote that Schiff had a no-tolerance policy for drug use and she had to be fired as an officer charged with enforcing the law and keeping drugs away from prisoners.