Jerome County seeks dismissal of firing case

JEROME (AP) - Lawyers representing Jerome County want a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the county of intentionally refusing to rehire a member of the Idaho Army National Guard who hurt his knee in combat and aggravated the injury in 2008.

Last month, U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson sued the county on behalf of Mervin Jones, a former county jail corporal who suffered a knee injury while deployed in Iraq in 2004 then aggravated it four years later during weekend Army training exercises.

The lawsuit accuses sheriff department administrators of terminating Jones in 2009, while he was recovering from multiple knee surgeries and violating the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

The Reemployment Rights Act requires that service members who leave their civilian jobs to serve in the military be rehired promptly by their civilian employers in the positions they would have held if their employment had not been interrupted by military service. The act allows employers to rehire them in positions of comparable seniority, pay, and status. It also act requires employers to accommodate service members who are injured in the line of duty, and allows service members who are recuperating from such an injury up to two years to obtain reemployment without facing termination by their civilian employers.

The Times-News reports that lawyers for the county deny allegations they did anything wrong in handling Jones' employment case.

For example, the sheriff's office denies the claims that Jones was forced to complete Family Medical Leave Act paperwork even though his leave was protected under the Reemployment Rights Act.

In court documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Boise, the county also denies telling Jones there were no light duty positions available in the jail or that he could only return to work after proving that he had no physical limitations.

The county also contends that Jones failed to comply with the requirements of the Idaho Tort Claim Act and that he filed to list the times and places when his complaints occurred.

Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com