Excerpts from the OakLawnLeaf.com:
Oak Lawn Village Manager Larry Deetjen is being charged with sending a politically charged press release to news outlets announcing the termination of Robert Lanz, a longtime firefighter/paramedic while simultaneously smearing the fire department with allegations of “animal house behavior” and a previously unreported child porn allegation.
Lanz was accused by the village’s administration of calling phone sex lines possibly while on duty and was served with a notice to appear for an interrogation. The press release said that Lanz violated departmental rules by allegedly making those phone calls on his cell phone while at the firehouse. The press release quotes Fire Chief George Sheets referring to the calls as reckless animal house behavior.
While the press release claims the decision to fire Lanz was made by Sheets, it also quotes Mayor Sandra Bury, who seemed to contradict the statement that the decision was made by Sheets saying “consideration for public safety made this difficult decision a simple one”. While the village has not alleged that Lanz made any phone calls while on paramedic or fire calls, the public safety issue has been previously raised by the administration to the chagrin of firefighters.
In court documents filed by the Village of Oak Lawn, the village claimed that Lanz, as a firefighter/paramedic, sees and treats the citizens of Oak Lawn when they are at their most vulnerable. While employees and officials we spoke to did not disagree with that statement, it was the following statement that raised the ire of everyone who read it:
Firefighter-paramedics such as the Plaintiff (Lanz) see patients when they are not fully clothed, and the paramedics must have physical contact with patients, often of the opposite sex. Because of this, the village must have supreme confidence that the firefighter will not abuse the patient relationship for his own personal gratification
“To connect an unproven allegation of phone sex to the possibility of a sex crime shows how far this administration will go to attack its firefighters”, said one employee who feared retaliation and asked for confidentiality.
However, that connection has now become even more pronounced in a press release and has been used to smear the entire fire department in what appears to be unsubstantiated allegations that were never acted upon over five years ago despite the village manager’s push to have the matter investigated by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. … who investigated and found no evidence of any criminal activity. Those allegations, according to a press release from Deetjen, involve child porn on computers. Nonetheless, Deetjen included the allegation in the press release that referred to animal house behavior.
Trustee Robert Streit confirmed that he had seen the press release but did not have any input into the decision to fire Lanz or to send out a press release. “It is highly unusual to send out a press release to announce that you are terminating an employee and it strikes me as a morale killer within our employee ranks,” said Streit. He called the unrelated charges cited in the press release a smear against the whole department.
One former village official, who asked not to be identified, said that the old child porn revelation raised by contractors hired by Deetjen and referenced in the press release were ruled as unfounded charges. The official said that the leaking of information regarding child porn seems to be Deetjen’s modus operandi … and … “Deetjen seems to take ridiculous allegations and run to law enforcement agencies in order to scream that there is an investigation but nobody is ever prosecuted leading you to believe it is all a smear”. He added that firefighters will not be the last victims of such smear campaigns and noted that they aren’t the only individuals to suffer from unsubstantiated innuendo.
In the Lanz investigation, Deetjen admitted that he personally investigated the names of some of the companies on the internet and determined that two of the companies provide phone sex services. He then reviewed Lanz’s records and determined some of the charges may have occurred when he was at the firehouse.
Streit said that Deetjen is an expert at the political smear noting that he too has been on the receiving end of Deetjen’s unfounded attacks.
The termination was not a complete surprise. Sheets had told Lanz twelve days ago that he intended to seek termination and provided Lanz an opportunity to appear before the mayor’s appointees at the Police and Fire Commission to fight the charges. Lanz is represented by the firefighters’ union and has decided to file a grievance instead contesting the termination. The grievance will be decided by an arbitrator.
The press release makes it clear that the administration will continue to fight with the firefighters.
Oak Lawn Termination Press Release
thanks Dan
