By Jamie Satterfield
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Sunni Muslim state trooper who convinced a judge he was fired for his faith now wants the Tennessee Department of Safety to pay a financial price for its discrimination.
De’Ossie Dingus is appealing a federal judge’s decision not to assess damages against his former employer.
U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell found the agency violated the rights of Dingus by firing him in 2010 after a military liaison dubbed the 10-year Tennessee Highway Patrol veteran a budding terrorist without any proof.
Campbell declined, though, to award damages for two key reasons: Dingus already won in an administrative appeal back pay and retirement benefits for his 10 years of service, and Dingus himself was reluctant to talk money at last year’s trial in his civil-rights lawsuit.
“It was the principle,” Dingus’ attorney, Arthur Knight III, said of the focus of Dingus’ testimony.
It might seem admirable for the fired trooper to focus on principles over his suffering, Knight noted, but in doing so, Campbell did not believe she had enough proof to peg a number to his pain.
Knight, on the other hand, sees the issue as one of punishment and deterrence. A state agency that suffers no repercussions for its wrongs is unlikely to change, he said.
“We respect Judge Campbell’s ruling, but we feel damages should have been awarded. What they did to Mr. Dingus was wrong.”
Military liaison Maj. Kevin Taylor labeled Dingus a potential terrorist after a brief encounter in November 2009 in which Dingus complained about the airing of a video on the radicalization of children during a training class that was supposed to teach troopers how to recognize weapons of mass destruction.
Taylor claimed Dingus was disruptive and belligerent during the class and confrontational afterward. But none of the 35 other troopers in the training class backed up Taylor’s claim. An internal investigation showed none of Dingus’ co-workers shared Taylor’s view. Most said they’d never once heard Dingus mention his faith.
But THP commanders fired Dingus anyway, relying on a psychological evaluation even the examiner said was based entirely on Taylor’s conclusion.
Evidence at the trial showed safety department officials, including now retired Commissioner David Mitchell, THP Col. Mike Walker, staff attorney Deborah Martin and human resources staffer Kerri Balthrop, began the process of firing Dingus even before an internal investigation of the terrorist tendencies claim was finished.
The judge ruled safety department officials were “all too eager to accept Maj. Taylor’s belief that because Mr. Dingus was a Muslim, he was dangerous.”
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