ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. --
Two Orange County firefighters fought to get their jobs back Tuesday, but lost the battle. They were fired for allegedly making crank calls to their lieutenant.
The firefighters made their case Tuesday in a hearing in Orange County, but the decision did not go their way. The firefighters lost their fight to keep their jobs.
One of the former firefighters accused of making the crude calls in question, Anthony Devereaux, tried to say the phone number the calls came from was not his number, but the county presented evidence from the phone company that showed it was his number and the calls came from his house.
“That evidence seemed pretty strong that it was your phone number,“ WFTV reporter Steve Barrett said to Devereaux.
“I don't really want to talk about it. Not a good day right now, not a good time,” Devereaux replied.
For six months, Devereaux and Peter Grossmueller have denied allegations surrounding a series of phone calls to their boss pretending they were calling a sex line. In court Tuesday, the victim, Gina Yeager, told a grievance panel that she recognized the voices even before the county proved whose phone number they came from.
Grossmueller was fired for allegedly lying during the investigation.
“My story hasn't changed since the beginning. I've never lied. I basically got fired for being at someone's house,” Grossmueller said.
But the county and Division Chief Vince Preston saw things differently.
"We would make the same decision if it happened a thousand times, we'd fire a thousand people. We're not going to tolerate this,” Preston said.
Most of what was described in the prank calls involved statements about paying money for phone sex. The county believes the calls were made after a night of partying at Deveraux's Polk County home.
The firefighters still have one slim chance to keep their jobs in an arbitration hearing, however that decision could be more than a year away. In the meantime, they're not getting paid, nor getting unemployment.
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