{"id":16632,"date":"2013-06-13T18:24:07","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T22:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=16632"},"modified":"2013-06-13T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T23:56:11","slug":"chesco-d-a-sued-for-age-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=16632","title":{"rendered":"Chesco D.A. sued for age discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two former prosecutors claim no other basis existed for termination<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Updated at 8 p.m. with comment from county solicitor<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TomHogan\"<\/a>

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two former Chester County prosecutors allege that their termination after a new district attorney took office constituted age discrimination.<\/p>\n

In a suit filed Wednesday in federal court, Edward J. Gallen and Robert L. Miller, who are represented by John A. Gallagher, contend that Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan violated the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 on Jan. 12, 2012. On that date, Hogan terminated Gallen, who was 65, Miller, who was 57, and two of their over-50 colleagues, the suit said.<\/p>\n

The suit said the four terminated employees were replaced by \u00a0less experienced lawyers who were “more than seven years younger.” Gallen and Miller, whose collective experience exceeded three decades, had established records of diligence and success \u201cunblemished by any disciplinary action,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven my clients\u2019 tenure and achievements prior to their termination, the other terminations of other older employees carried out by the D.A. in January 2012 \u2026 and the age of the replacement employees, we have surmised that the only possible explanation for their terminations was age-based animus,\u201d said Gallagher.\u00a0 \u201cWe expect to prove that in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan referred any comment to Thomas L. Whiteman, the county’s solicitor. Whiteman confirmed receipt of the complaints on Wednesday afternoon but said county policy precludes him from commenting on “matters of pending litigation.”<\/p>\n

According to the suit, Gallen, who worked in the office from July 2000 to Jan. 12, 2000, primarily handled juvenile prosecutions, which, considering the Luzerne County \u201cKids for Cash\u201d scandal, \u201cshould be viewed as a specialty where experience and excellence is required.\u201d \u00a0The suit said Miller, employed from January 1988 to Jan. 12, 2012, was promoted in 2003 to deputy district attorney, due to \u201chis exemplary work and ability to work cooperatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither plaintiff received advance notice of the termination \u201cwithout cause,\u201d which occurred 10 days after Hogan took office, the suit said. In addition, they were not offered an opportunity to take another position or \u201cto resolve any perceived problems,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two former prosecutors claim no other basis existed for termination Updated at 8 p.m. with comment from county solicitor By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times Two former Chester County prosecutors allege that their termination after a new district attorney took office constituted age discrimination. In a suit filed Wednesday in federal court, Edward J. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[3651,3649,3650,3648,2993],"class_list":["post-16632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-age-discrimination","tag-edward-j-gallen","tag-john-a-gallagher","tag-robert-l-miller","tag-tom-hogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}