HOUSTON – A former Houston police officer alleges that he was forced to quit the force over “an email of public concern” and has filed a federal lawsuit against the city.
Kenneth Mitchell sued the City of Houston in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas on Oct. 25.
According to the suit, Mitchell voiced his opposition to the centralization of the new Northbelt Division in the Greenspoint area first to his supervisors and then in the subject email which was sent to Larry Lipton, a local businessman.
Lipton purportedly forwarded the email to the Willowbrook Mall manager, the head of security at Willowbrook Methodist Hospital, Harris County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Coons, and Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Hermann.
The defendant learned about the correspondence and sought to find who originated it, eventually focusing on Mitchell, the original petition says.
Court documents assert that the respondent retaliated against the plaintiff by suspending him indefinitely until he was to meet with Chief Art Acevedo for a Loudermill hearing that “would either offer him to keep his job and sign all legal rights away or be terminated.”
Acevedo allowed Mitchell to quit last July 13 with an honorable discharge, the suit says. Court filings were recently amended to include the chief as a co-defendant.
It accuses the city of “unreasonably” claiming that the complainant “caused alarm in the community.”
Consequently, Mitchell seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
He is representing himself.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:18-CV-4052