Fort Worth City Council members approved up to $100,000 in legal fees for an outside lawyer to represent the city in a complicated whistleblower lawsuit that appeared to have been settled in 2024 for $850,000.<\/p>\n
The council, on a motion by member Carlos Flores at their Tuesday meeting, unanimously approved the payment to attorney Courtney Perez of the BakerHostetler firm.<\/p>\n
Council members in April 2024 approved what the city then said was an $850,000 settlement<\/a> with former employee Trisa Crutcher, who had filed a whistleblower suit alleging violations in the Fort Worth Police Crime Lab, where she worked as a forensic scientist.<\/p>\n Crutcher, as a crime lab employee, filed a 174-page whistleblower complaint<\/a> in 2020. The city fired her in 2021, according to the appellate court\u2019s ruling<\/a>. The same year, the Texas Commission on Forensic Science affirmed policy violations had occurred<\/a> but concluded they didn\u2019t rise to level of misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n She filed two lawsuits \u2014 one in 2020 and another in 2023 \u2014 claiming she was retaliated against for reporting the violations. The suits were then consolidated and went to mediation.<\/p>\n Crutcher subsequently contended she didn\u2019t agree to the 2024 settlement. The state Court of Appeals at the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas agreed with her in March, referring to the settlement as \u201calleged\u201d and remanding the case to the 193rd State District Court in Dallas.<\/p>\n The city, however, has already paid the $850,000 to a court registry, according to the appellate ruling and city.<\/p>\n City attorney Leann Guzman gave the following summary Tuesday to the Fort Worth Report, which was confirmed by information in the appellate ruling:<\/p>\n According to the appellate documents, Kennedy was Crutcher\u2019s attorney as of the court\u2019s March ruling. Kennedy confirmed Wednesday to the Report that his firm, Kennedy Law P.C., still represents Crutcher.<\/p>\n Crutcher is seeking reinstatement to her job, \u201camong other relief,\u201d Kennedy said, citing what\u2019s in the public record. \u201cWe decline to comment further regarding the pending litigation at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The city had sought in court to enforce the settlement and argued that Crutcher had acquiesced to it when she said in a court hearing in 2024 that she did not oppose the big payment to Medlenka, according to the appellate record.<\/p>\n The appellate court disagreed with the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city bore the burden of proof, and we conclude that the record does not show that Crutcher clearly intended to acquiesce in the judgment,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The court addressed the question of whether the money already paid out had dissipated to the point where it couldn\u2019t be recovered if rulings favored the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThe record is silent on this point,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n The city does not plan to appeal the appellate ruling, Guzman told the Report.<\/p>\n This story contains previous reporting from a Fort Worth Report story in 2024.<\/p>\n Scott Nishimura is senior editor for local government accountability and a Fort Worth City Hall reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.<\/p>\n\n