Judge exonerates Lanier in whistleblower case
A D.C. judge exonerated Police Chief Cathy Lanier in a whistleblower case, ruling that a jury erred when it concluded that she unlawfully retaliated against a police officer while she was a district commander, Attorney General Peter Nickels said Wednesday. Officers filed a suit in 2005 claiming that the department punished them after they complained that the department’s off-duty reimbursable overtime policy was illegal. The jury in August identified Lanier as the only official within the department who engaged in the retaliatory conduct. But Superior Court Associate Judge Franklin Burgess ruled that “the Court could not punish Lanier because … there was not any evidence to hold her personally responsible.”
