South Carolina Chief Placed on Leave After Publishing Book

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Posted by: cvarone 5 hours ago 0

An EMS chief in South Carolina is in hot water following publication of a book about his experiences.

Charleston County EMS Chief Don Lundy is now on temporary administrative leave with pay while the county investigates his recently published memoir, “Paramedics of the Heart”, that refers to some of his colleagues as “life-sucking, energy draining bags of annoying hell.”

The self-published book available on Amazon does not identify employees by name, but several of the the online comments indicate that the identity of who he is talking about is obvious to those in the area.

BTW…Do we need to review First Amendment law again? I know its been a week… Here is the simplest formulation of the law pertaining to the First Amendment Rights of public employees… the Pickering balancing test: If an employee is (1) speaking on a matter of public concern (2) as a private citizen, they must prove their interest “in commenting upon matters of public concern” outweighs the “interests of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.”

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Curt Varone has over 41 years of fire service experience and 29 as a practicing attorney licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. His background includes 29 years as a career firefighter in Providence (retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief), as well as volunteer and paid on call experience. He is the author of two books: Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services, (2006, 2nd ed. 2011, 3rd ed. 2014) and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook (2007), and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine writing the Fire Law column.