Nov. 18--A Fresno firefighter who is currently the leading vote-getter in a Tulare City Council election is suing Fresno and two Fire Department leaders, claiming they discriminated against him because he is black.
Carlton Jones alleges in a suit moved to Fresno federal court this month that former chief Randy Bruegman and Don MacAlpine, who is deputy fire marshal for the city, denied him a promotion to captain and subsequently forced him out of the department.
"Carlton's a really good guy," said his attorney, Roger Bonakdar. "He loves the community and loves being a public servant, and the idea that this was going to be taken from him terrified him."
Jones began working for the department in 2002 and rose through the ranks to the position of engineer. But while he was in the midst of a divorce, Jones was arrested in 2009 in Tulare County on felony assault charges. (He was later acquitted.) The arrest sparked his problems with the Fire Department, the suit says.
No one from the city involved in the case would answer questions about it.
Jones' suit lays out how he says the Fresno Fire Department leaders discriminated against him:
When MacAlpine learned of the arrest, "a decision was made" by him and Bruegman "to exploit the baseless arrest" to force Jones out of the department.
Bruegman -- who left the department in 2010 to become Anaheim's fire chief -- alerted the Central California Emergency Medical Services Agency for Fresno to the arrest, and the agency suspended Jones' EMT certification. The certification is part of the minimum qualifications to be a Fresno firefighter.
Jones, now 39, was put on unpaid leave. He was later acquitted of the Tulare County charges, but his EMT certification remained suspended.
"They didn't even try to talk to him about (the criminal charges)," Bonakdar said of Fresno officials. "It was like an open-and-shut thing with the department. Carlton didn't even get his two cents out about it."
Jones complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that he was being discriminated against. In finding for Jones, the EEOC said that several non-black Fresno firefighters had faced "a wide spectrum of criminal charges" such as fraud, embezzlement, domestic violence and assault, but none had their EMT certification suspended. Also, none was placed on unpaid leave.
Jones -- who served a single term on the Tulare council before being defeated in a 2008 re-election bid, and who now appears on his way to winning back his seat -- is seeking reimbursement in the federal lawsuit for lost wages and pension benefits, as well as other damages, including punitive. He is still an engineer with the Fresno Fire Department.
The reporter can be reached at (559) 441-6320, [email protected] or @johnellis24 on Twitter.
Copyright 2012 - The Fresno Bee
