Courts Toss Lawsuit: Use Grievance Process Instead

A series of Canadian courts has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Hamilton (Ont.) police dispatcher claiming the department improperly blamed her for not following procedures in a 2007 multiple murder case. The country’s Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on Wednesday, ending the lawsuit. Teresa Dinunzio filed the action claiming that in public statements, department officials blamed her and another dispatcher—without naming them—of failing to send officers when Dinunzio answered a phone call from the agency’s most-wanted fugitive, identified himself and asked that officers come and arrest him. Instead, Dinunzio told the man to walk to headquarters and turn himself in. The man never appeared, and a week later he fatally stabbed two people and critically injured two more. A month later a deputy police chief revealed that the suspect had dialed 911 to turn himself in. He said the dispatcher should have sent officers Priority 2, but instead handled it as a Priority 3, a violation of policy. The deputy chief did not name Dinunzio or her coworker. Her original lawsuit was dismissed by a Superior Court of Justice on the grounds that her labor contract set out how work disputes should be handled, and that a civil court had no jurisdiction in the matter. When Dinunzio appealed, the provincial Court of Appeal agreed with the lower court’s decision. The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear her appeal this week. Download (pdf) the civil court’s decision on the case, and read more about the situation here.