Recommended penalty for firefighter who tested positive for cocaine: termination in a random drug test
OATH Index #1350/12
A firefighter who tested positive for cocaine in a random workplace drug test failed to demonstrate that he consumed the cocaine unknowingly.
OATH Administrative Law Judge Tynia D. Richard did not find the firefighter’s explanation – a supposition that three strange women had surreptitiously drugged him while they drank together on a ski vacation in Lake Placid – to be credible.
The firefighter’s testimony concerning injuries that he suffered before and after the positive drug test in an effort to mitigate the proposed penalty failed to persuade the Administrative Law Judge. In the words of Judge Richard: [The Department] seeks [the firefighter’s] termination, citing the Department’s zero-tolerance policy. [The firefighter] seeks to mitigate on the basis of injuries he sustained while working as a firefighter, including some that occurred after his positive drug test while working for the Department on light duty. I did not find such mitigation.”
ALJ Richard recommended termination of his employment.
The decision is posted on the Internet at:
http://archive.citylaw.org/oath/12_Cases/12-1350.pdf