Judge orders airport to rehire deputy police chief, pay back wages
PROVIDENCE RI May 8 2021— The state agency that runs T.F. Green Airport was wrong when it fired the deputy chief of the airport police and did not provide her a hearing under the state Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
In a decision dated Thursday, Presiding Justice Alice B. Gibney said that former Deputy Chief Helen Ricci is entitled to be reinstated to the job and back pay.
The judge’s decision is based on the Rhode Island Airport Corporation not following the bill of rights law when firing Ricci, a Westerly resident. The decision does not address whether the corporation had a valid reason to fire Ricci.
After being terminated on Nov. 10 for “insubordination and other causes,” Ricci filed a request for a hearing under the bill of rights law.
The airport corporation apparently never responded to her request.
In her subsequent lawsuit, the corporation argued that Ricci was not a law enforcement officer under the definition in the law because the law exempts the highest ranking officer. At the time of her firing, the position of police chief was vacant.
But Ricci argued — and Gibney agreed — that state law also defines the airport director — in this case airport corporation president and chief executive Iftikhar Ahmad — as the highest ranking law enforcement officer.
Although Gibney reinstated Ricci and said she should be paid back pay and benefits, the judge’s order does not bar the airport corporation from holding a hearing on Ricci’s employment.
According to her lawsuit, Ricci was hired to the $114,400-a-year job on Dec. 16, 2019, but wasn’t sworn in until March 2, 2020, but performed the deputy chief duties starting on her hire date.
In February, a spokesman for the airport corporation declined to discuss specifics of the reasons for which Ricci was fired, except to say it “involves insubordination and other causes.”
The Providence Journal
