By Matthew Hathaway ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
FESTUS The city agreed last month to pay $55,000 to a former police officer to settle a federal lawsuit in which the officer claimed his firing was retaliatory, Festus Mayor Gene Doyle announced Tuesday.
The former officer, Sean Cooper, lost his job in 2004 because, he claimed, he had exposed a cover-up of a late-night traffic accident involving a municipal judge.
On Tuesday, Doyle said the city would pay Cooper $5,000 and the city’s insurer would pay the former officer $50,000.
Cooper, 38, contended he was fired after he complained to members of the City Council that the city’s municipal judge had received special treatment after a car collision on Truman Boulevard, near the boundary of Festus and Crystal City. The accident on March 26, 2004, involved Michael Lowry, the municipal judge at the time, who has since left office. Lowry has denied that he received any special treatment.
No one was injured, and police made no official report of the incident.
Cooper claims a Festus sergeant pressured the driver of the vehicle that collided with Lowry’s to leave the scene of the accident or risk arrest for driving without insurance.
Police Chief Tim Lewis fired Cooper on July 15, 2004, after the officer tape-recorded part of the closed-door testimony before a special committee that Doyle had appointed to investigate the claim of a police cover-up. The department prohibits officers from secretly recording colleagues and supervisors.
Cooper no longer works in law enforcement and currently is employed by a construction company based in south St. Louis County.
January 4, 2006