GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A federal judge has ruled against a former Grand Rapids Police Department lieutenant who lost his job after he worked to downplay a crash involving a former prosecutor who had been drinking.
Matthew Janiskee, backed by the command officers' union, claimedthat his rights were violated when a GRPD phone line marked "non-recorded" was actually taped. Janiskee's statements on that line contributed to his firing.
But the city said the line was recorded accidentally and without the knowledge of anyone else after a contractor updated the phone system several years ago.
The judge agreed that the recordings were inadvertent, pointing out that no city employees had the credentials to change the phone system. For that reason, he ruled, the recordings could be used in discipline against Janiskee.
Janiskee's attorney Andrew Rodenhouse said they still believe the recordings were intentional.
"When you get into the four-step process of what it takes to set a line to record, the Line 3407 'non-recorded' label would’ve been directly on the screen when they selected the drop-down to select record. So anyone doing that would’ve been put on notice," Rodenhouse told 24 Hour News 8 after the hearing.
Because of that, he argued the city should be held accountable for how the situation unfolded.
“If you take a gun and you walk outside and you intentionally pull the trigger, even if you didn’t mean to hit anybody or anything, you’re responsible for where that bullet goes. And it doesn’t take much to pull a trigger on a gun. It doesn’t take much to select record on a non-recorded line. But you should still be responsible for clicking that," Rodenhouse said.
Rodenhouse said they need to further review the judge's ruling before deciding how to move forward and that an appeal is a possibility.
Read more at WOODTV.com