Employee terminated after failing random drug test
Danese v NYC Transit Authority, App. Div., 256 AD2d 464, Motion for leave to appeal denied, 93 NY2d 811
In this appeal from administrative discipline cases involving a police officer’s failing a random drug test, the Appellate Division panels ruled that dismissal was not too harsh a penalty to impose after being found guilty of the offense.
New York City Transit Police Officer Salvatore Danese, tested positive for cocaine in a random drug test.
An administrative law judge found Danese guilty of “certain enumerated charges.” The penalty imposed by the Authority: termination.
Danese appealed, challenging the Authority’s determination and the penalty imposed. The Appellate Division said that dismissal under the circumstances “was not so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one’s sense of fairness,” applying the so-called Pell standard [Pell v Board of Education, 34 NY2D 222].
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NYPPL Blogger Harvey Randall served as Principal Attorney, New York State Department of Civil Service; Director of Personnel, SUNY Central Administration; Director of Research, Governor’s Office of Employee Relations; and Staff Judge Advocate General, New York Guard.
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