Location: Boston Ma We Fired An Employee For A Workplace Threat. A Civil Rights Agency Already Found Preliminary Evidence We Were Wrong. Are We Cooked?

We are a large urban academic medical center in Boston. We’re looking for honest outside perspective because this situation has escalated significantly and we want to understand how this looks to people who don’t know us.

Background:

One of our patient care technicians was assaulted by a patient last September. We documented his injuries, supported him through our post-incident process, and he continued working.

The termination:

Several months later, after a different patient threatened this employee during a shift, he made a statement out of earshot of that patient — to no one in any danger — that we determined violated our workplace violence policy. The only witness present was a union-side representative who documented in writing, contemporaneously, that the statement “didn’t seem literal.” We terminated him anyway.

He was given the opportunity to appeal. We have produced zero documentation related to that appeal process despite multiple formal requests.

The legal situation:

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has already made a prima facie determination — meaning an investigator reviewed our reasoning and found sufficient evidence of discrimination to proceed to full investigation. That proceeding is ongoing.

What he’s done since:

Since termination he has filed with MCAD and EEOC, contacted our board of trustees, our creditors, our academic affiliates, the Joint Commission, OSHA, the Massachusetts Attorney General, the Suffolk County District Attorney, and multiple state legislators. Two state senators and a state representative have contacted our CEO directly. He is representing himself with no attorney.

The records problem:

The Attorney General’s office issued a formal directive ordering us to produce his personnel records eight months ago. We have not fully complied.

The DA is actively prosecuting the patient who assaulted him in September. We have photographs of this employee’s injuries from the night of the assault — taken by our own clinical staff. We have not produced those photographs to anyone. Not to the employee. Not to MCAD. Not to the AG. Not to the DA prosecuting the case.

What he’s asking for:

Reinstatement to his former position and significant financial damages.

Our position:

We believe our termination decision was justified and we are defending it vigorously.

But we want honest outside perspective: how does this look to people with no stake in the outcome?

Location: Boston MA