RALEIGH, N.C. — After 10 years and multiple trips through the courts over being fired for telling a fib about how he lost his hat, a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper could be getting his job back.
An appeals court says former State Trooper Thomas Wetherington shouldn't have been fired for losing his hat and lying about it.
The case began in 2009 when Wetherington lost his signature round-brimmed Highway Patrol 'Campaign' hat while conducting a late-night traffic stop on US 70 in Craven County.
At issue was that Wetherington lied about how he lost his hat, claiming it was blown off his head and run over by an 18-wheeler, according to court documents.
However, he later recalled that he left his hat atop his unit but didn't inform his supervisor. The hat was returned intact by the driver of the truck he had pulled over and his supervisor showed him the hat, questioned his account and called him out on his lie.
The Highway Patrol fired Wetherington after it determined he violated the agency's truthfulness policy which states that no patrol member "shall willfully report any inaccurate, false, improper or misleading information." An administrative law judge and a majority on the state personnel commission upheld the firing.
The matter has gone to the state Supreme Court once before and generated over 1,000 pages of legal briefs, rulings, and evidence.
However, in a 54-page opinion Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the North Carolina Court of Appeals said the Highway Patrol should not have fired Wetherington over the lost hat.
"It is unlikely so many lawyers have ever before written so many pages because of a lost hat. True, hats have caused serious problems in prior cases. Once a streetcar passenger was blinded in one eye by a hat thrown by a man quarreling with others. Lost and misplaced hats have been important bits of evidence in quite a few murder and other felony cases. People have suffered serious injuries trying to catch a hat. As in those cases, the real issue here is far more serious than an errant hat, but that is where it started," read Judge Donna Stroud's poetically penned prose in the court's opinion.
The appeals court determined Tuesday that the Highway Patrol failed to consider factors outlined by the high court when it upheld the trooper's firing.
"Respondent terminated Petitioner's employment as a trooper based upon its "per se" rule that any untruthfulness by a state trooper is unacceptable personal conduct and just cause for dismissal. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 126-35 (2017). In the first round of appellate review, the North Carolina Supreme Court concluded, "Colonel Glover's use of a rule requiring dismissal for all violations of the Patrol's truthfulness policy was an error of law," and remanded for Respondent to make a decision on the proper legal basis "as to whether petitioner should be dismissed based upon the facts and circumstances and without the application of a per se rule," the opinion continued," the opinion continued.
The ruling sends the case back to the administrative law judge instructing that Wetherington be reinstated to the patrol for a more appropriate level of discipline and consideration over lost salary.
