EMPLOYMENT

Michael Elkins

MLE Law

The Miami Beach Police Department alleged Capt. Alex Carulo repeatedly sent pornographic material on the city's email system, and an internal affairs investigation ended with his firing.

The police union challenged the firing and asked for reinstatement, and the case went to binding arbitration. The arbitrator sided with the city, finding just cause for dismissal.

Carulo sued in Miami-Dade Circuit Court to overturn the decision, arguing the city violated the police officer's bill of rights by waiting too long to discipline him. The city simultaneously sued to confirm the award, and the cases were consolidated.

The trial court granted the city's dismissal motion and confirmed the award. On appeal, the Third District Court of Appeal issued a per curiam decision in May affirming dismissal.

Describe a key piece of testimony, evidence, ruling or order in your case and how it influenced the outcome: The finality of this case was four years in the making. The case started as a labor arbitration. The city fired the police officer, and the police union fought for the individual to get his job back. Despite the horrific nature of the facts, there was a point during the labor arbitration where it felt like this case could go either way.

Labor arbitrators generally do not like to keep employees fired. They tend to try and find any opening to return the employee to work, albeit many times with a lengthy suspension. Oftentimes, if a fired employee throws themselves on the mercy of the arbitrator and in their testimony owns the error, insists it will never happen again, agrees they were wrong and even offers up additional training and rehabilitation, they stand a better chance of being returned to work.

I fully expected the former officer to do just that. I was prepared to counter what I thought would be contrived contrition. Instead, the former officer did not show contrition. In fact, his testimony was the opposite of contrition. This was a major turning point and likely was the difference between his remaining fired and being returned to work and set the stage for the future legal matters going forward.