TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court docket on Friday declined to consider up an charm filed by a few Miami firefighters right after a reduced courtroom shielded the town and Fireplace Chief Joseph Zahralban from defamation allegations.
The lawsuit stemmed from a 2017 incident in which a Black firefighter’s family members images ended up defaced and a string formed like a noose was put in excess of just one of the shots.
Firefighters David Rivera, Kevin Meizoso and Justin Rumbaugh filed the lawsuit about feedback that Zahralban built in a news launch and news conference that implicated them in placing the noose above the photo, in accordance to a ruling previous year by a panel of the 3rd District Courtroom of Attractiveness.
The firefighters mentioned they have been not concerned in the noose incident and alleged in the lawsuit that Zahralban’s statements falsely portrayed them as “racists who were accountable for positioning the noose more than the defaced photographs, resulting in them irreparable damage,” the appeals court docket ruling mentioned.
Immediately after becoming terminated from their employment, the firefighters went to arbitration and were being reinstated.
A Miami-Dade County circuit choose declined to dismiss the defamation allegations, but the appeals courtroom stated the metropolis and Zahralban ended up entitled to authorized immunity.
That led the firefighters to choose the dispute to the Supreme Courtroom. As is typical, the Supreme Court on Friday did not element factors for declining to get up the case. But the decision effectively kept in location the appeals court ruling in favor of the metropolis and Zahralban.
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