http://cjonline.com/stories/070701/kan_ada.shtml
Last modified at 3:23 a.m. on Saturday,
July 7, 2001
DENVER -- A fired investigator of
the Kansas Department of Corrections has been given another chance to prove
his claim that his superiors discriminated against him because he has multiple
sclerosis.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
this week instructed a lower court in Topeka to reopen the lawsuit of Steve
E. Frazier and reconsider his claim that the KDOC violated the Americans
with Disabilities Act.
Frazier, of Topeka, claims that the
department violated the law by not accommodating his disability so that
he could remain employed. He worked in the KDOC's central office when he
was fired in 1994.
Senior U.S. District Judge Sam Crow
granted a summary judgment in favor of the department. The Denver-based
appeals court upheld that 3-0 in a 38-page decision.
But the judges also ruled that the
case must be reopened for Crow to consider a provision in the law that
he didn't consider.
The judges rejected the KDOC's contention
that it was immune from the lawsuit.
The department head, Charles E. Simmons,
said he fired Frazier because he was unable to perform his duties due to
his disability.
Frazier unsuccessfully asked the
KDOC to restructure his job or assign him to a vacant position so that
his disability wouldn't interfere with his work. He had worked for the
state in law enforcement jobs for 17 years.
Department administrators said they
didn't consider him for any other law enforcement-type job because he had
said he couldn't perform that type of work. The KDOC didn't consider him
for other jobs because the administrators said Frazier didn't have the
requisite skills.
"They said, 'You can't do any job
(within the KDOC)' and they fired him," Frazier's attorney Kirk W. Lowry
said Friday. Lowry works for the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center.
KDOC spokesman Bill Miskell said
there aren't many jobs in the department that don't require law-enforcement
functions, such as using a weapon or restraining inmates, functions that
Frazier was unable to perform. Frazier contended those functions aren't
essential for some KDOC jobs that he was qualified for.
"The department is supportive of
the ADA and will follow the ADA," Miskell said.
By Robert Boczkiewicz
Special to The Capital-Journal