July 05--ST. LOUIS -- A former paramedic with the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District says a fire official hacked into his private email and that member and others fired him for raising concerns about district operations with a Post-Dispatch reporter.
The claims by Stevon Anzaldua came in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that names district board members and fire officials and seeks unspecified damages for lost wages and other costs.
The suit says that Anzaldua had been disciplined in April of 2012 for raising concerns about the district. Anzaldua also drafted, but didn't send, an email months later to the district's medical director, but a fire official and a private citizen accessed his private email and sent the draft, the suit says.
The suit says that Anzaldua was hired in 2008 as a paramedic and later also worked as a firefighter. He was fired Sept. 26, 2012, for sending an email on Aug. 23 to then-Post-Dispatch reporter Elizabethe Holland that raised concerns about staff mishaps, inadequate equipment and misconduct by fire officials, the suit says.
His termination letter says that he "circulated an email publicly defaming and denigrating the District without just cause," and that the board found his explanation "not credible."
Reached Friday, District lawyer Anthony Gray said that he could not comment on the specific reasons that Anzaldua was fired, saying that the information was confidential. "I'll just tell you that the board considered some facts that Anzaldua himself did not deny."
Gray said that he was unaware of anyone accessing Anzaldua's email.
In recent years the district has been plagued with lawsuits and other controversies.
Anzaldua's firing came shortly after the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office told then-President Bob Lee to step down because of a conflict with an outside job. Lee was illegally ousted in 2009 and later restored to office. The district also spent 16 months under court-imposed financial oversight and briefly lost its ability to carry or administer certain drugs when a state license lapsed.
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