A federal judge imposed sanctions against a state agency supervisor for her testimony in a case regarding a state employee fired for a social media post following Charlie Kirk’s killing.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker determined that not correcting the record after exaggerating the number of complaints to the agency about the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission employee’s social media re-post is ground for striking that testimony and awarding attorney fees against the supervisor.
Following the negative blowback demanding FWC biologist Brittney Brown’s firing, Melissa Tucker, a division director, alleged that Brown’s repost resulted in hundreds of documented complaints, disrupting FWC operations.
Later, it was revealed that approximately 50 documented complaints reached the department and most of them never reached the people who decided to fire Brown.
“There is a label for what Ms. Tucker did — making false statements. And there is a label for what defense counsel has done — vexatious litigation,” Walker wrote in a five-page order, also criticizing Tucker’s counsel’s “continued defense of her false statements.”
A day later, Tucker asked for qualified immunity.
Brown, following Kirk’s killing, reposted to her private Instagram a post from a profile that parodies how a whale might see the world. “The whales are deeply saddened to learn of the shooting of charlie kirk, haha just kidding, they care exactly as much as charlie kirk cared about children being shot in their classrooms, which is to say, not at all.”
At the direction of FWC Executive Director Roger Young, Tucker fired Brown, prompting the lawsuit for wrongful firing. Her legal team argues that, since the decision wasn’t hers, she’s entitled to qualified immunity.
“There is no evidence that Tucker had the authority to override her supervisor’s decision or that Plaintiff would not have been terminated had Tucker refused to implement Young’s decision,” Tucker’s attorney argued in a plea for qualified immunity.
Walker denied a request for a preliminary injunction in November. He said in his more recent filing that striking the statements would not change the outcome of the earlier hearing.
“Ms. Tucker’s continued quibbling with the content of her affidavit and what constituted personal knowledge when she made the sworn statements within that affidavit undermines the system of justice. Moreover, Ms. Tucker’s defense counsel’s continued defense of Ms. Tucker’s false statements flouts the responsibilities that counsel must abide by,” Walker wrote.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
