AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) — The Supreme Court of Texas has dismissed a Texas Whistleblower Act claim against the Madisonville Police Department and the City of Madisonville filed by a former police officer.
David Sims filed the claim on July 16, 2014, approximately two years after he initially reported a former colleague for wrongdoing to a superior in July 2012, and was “honorably discharged” on July 27, 2012.
The Texas Whistleblower Act protects public employees from being fired by a governing entity upon reporting another employee’s violation of the law. The reporting employee, once fired or upon discovery of violation of the act, has 90 days to file suit.
The Supreme Court of Texas dismissed a Texas Whistleblower Act claim against the Madisonville Police Department and the city of Madisonville.
During his employment with the Madisonville Police Department, Sims reported information he received from a confidential informant regarding his boss, Sgt. Jeffrey Covington, to Chief of Police Charles May. Covington, according to Sims, was planning to have his ex-wife arrested after planting drugs in her car. This plot would strengthen Covington’s position in his child-custody dispute with his ex-wife.
May dismissed these allegations.
Sims was fired shortly after for violating the departments' computer-use policy. Sims accessed Covington’s computer through the “administrative share program,” finding an “investigative file” on himself with GPS-location data and police vehicle recordings.
May testified that he authorized this internal investigation into Sims at a State Office of Administrative Hearing on April 17, 2014.
Sims argued that he sued the city and police department within the act’s 90-day deadline because he did not learn until the April 2014 hearing that May initiated Covington’s internal investigation, which he believed to be in retaliation for his report against Covington.
The Supreme Court of Texas granted the city’s petition for review, reversed the court of appeals’ judgment, and dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction on April 17 due to Sims' failure to file his lawsuit within the 90-day timeframe of when he was fired. The court ruled the lawsuit does not meet the jurisdictional statutory prerequisite.