A veteran Metro mechanic has been fired, and three top executives suspended, after the mechanic told a dirty joke to a crowd at a departmental awards ceremony, The Examiner has learned.
Gene Garritt volunteered to emcee a banquet in Prince George’s County for elevator and escalator apprentices Sept. 17. Taking the microphone, he told dirty jokes. The humor was lost on someone in his audience, who reported Garritt to Metro authorities.
After a three-month investigation, Metro officials fired him, agency spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein confirmed to The Examiner on Monday.
“It was determined that the remarks made by the employee on Sept. 17 were so egregious that he was dismissed,” Farbstein said in an e-mail. “His remarks were extremely offensive and they were reported to our Office of Civil Rights.”
Garritt has been an engineer with Metro for 16 years. He didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
Also caught up in the investigation were three supervisors — including elevator division Director David Lacosse.
“I guess I am the head of the department,” Lacosse told The Examiner. “Ultimately, I’m responsible.”
Lacosse will serve a one-week suspension. Two of Lacosse’s deputies, who include a superintendent and a shift boss, are also being suspended, Farbstein and Lacosse said.
“We believe that as supervisors, they should have immediately stepped forward, escorted the employee away from the microphone, apologized for his remarks and filled in as master of ceremonies,” Farbstein said of the bosses. “That is the leadership we expect.”
Lacosse said he wasn’t in the room when Garritt delivered his comedy stylings; he was in the lobby, greeting guests. But Lacosse said he was willing to take his medicine.
“I have no intentions of appealing,” he said. “I’ll take full responsibility.”
