Ex-County Employee Loses Wrongful-Firing Lawsuit

A Superior Court jury has ruled against a former Orange County employee who claimed he was fired for talking to a newspaper reporter after a 1990 state Senate hearing, attorneys said Wednesday.

Jurors Tuesday unanimously decided that the county had not violated the free speech rights of J. Michael Whittaker, 48, an analyst with the drug abuse section of the county’s Health Care Agency when he was fired in March, 1991. The termination came four months after the hearing on state drug abuse programs.

Whittaker had contended that he was released because he talked to Rose Ellen O’Connor, then a reporter for The Times, after the hearing. Whittaker claimed that although he provided O’Connor only with background information and was not quoted in her story, one of his supervisors believed that he planned to leak other material to the press.

Whittaker filed suit in February, 1992, for $274,000 on the grounds that he was terminated for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. He was in the 51st week of a 52-week probationary period when he was fired.

Norm Watkins, an attorney for the county, applauded the verdict, saying the jury “adopted the common-sense notion that an employer like the county has the right to insist that only senior people speak to the press (because) they know what they’re talking about.”

Watkins also said that Whittaker did not present enough evidence linking his discussion with the reporter and his firing.

In any event, the county was entitled to fire Whittaker based on his performance, Watkins said. Because Whittaker was a probationary employee, the county was also entitled to fire him for any reason, Watkins said, except one that violated his freedom of speech.

Tim Mullins, mental health director for the county’s Health Care Agency, said the jury’s decision was not a surprise. “There was never a shred of evidence that the county had done something wrong,” he said.

Whittaker said he will not appeal the verdict.