dcourier.com/
Arizona - KINGMAN - A longtime city employee who was terminated
because her husband belongs to an alleged outlaw motorcycle gang will have a
personnel hearing in mid-May.
Melissa Summerson, a former human resources technician who spent 11 years
with the city, was fired in December 2012 because her husband, Bill Summerson,
is a member of the Desert Road Riders motorcycle club.
The May 15-16 hearing will determine if Summerson gets her job back and if the city overstepped boundaries when she was fired.
Through her attorney, David Kresin of Phoenix, she seeks reinstatement with back pay and benefits. She wants the city to pay her legal fees and other costs.
According to the Kingman Police Department, the Desert Road Riders have sided with the Hells Angels in an ongoing feud with the Vagos club.
The concern from the city's perspective is that Summerson, who had access to sensitive information as a human resources employee, would reveal home addresses of police officers to club members with an axe to grind.
There is no evidence Summerson was involved in such activity. She has a stellar employment record, according to city documents.
In its notice of termination, the city told Summerson that her association with an "OMG," an acronym for outlaw motorcycle gang, in tandem with her access to employee information "has our law enforcement, legal, dispatch and judicial system employees very concerned with regard to their personal information."
Summerson believes the manner in which she was fired violated her rights and her freedom to associate.
While police believe the Desert Road Riders have been a "support club" of the Hells Angels for more than a decade, Summerson in her formal response to the city said the Desert Road Riders is a family club that supports each other and the community.
She said she would never release sensitive information found in the city's employee files.
"Honesty, integrity, confidentiality, respect and professionalism were instilled in me by my parents," she wrote.
Last year, a handful of Hells Angels and Desert Road Riders were acquitted of rioting charges related to a 2009 bar brawl with members of the Vagos in Bullhead City.
The May 15-16 hearing will determine if Summerson gets her job back and if the city overstepped boundaries when she was fired.
Through her attorney, David Kresin of Phoenix, she seeks reinstatement with back pay and benefits. She wants the city to pay her legal fees and other costs.
According to the Kingman Police Department, the Desert Road Riders have sided with the Hells Angels in an ongoing feud with the Vagos club.
The concern from the city's perspective is that Summerson, who had access to sensitive information as a human resources employee, would reveal home addresses of police officers to club members with an axe to grind.
There is no evidence Summerson was involved in such activity. She has a stellar employment record, according to city documents.
In its notice of termination, the city told Summerson that her association with an "OMG," an acronym for outlaw motorcycle gang, in tandem with her access to employee information "has our law enforcement, legal, dispatch and judicial system employees very concerned with regard to their personal information."
Summerson believes the manner in which she was fired violated her rights and her freedom to associate.
While police believe the Desert Road Riders have been a "support club" of the Hells Angels for more than a decade, Summerson in her formal response to the city said the Desert Road Riders is a family club that supports each other and the community.
She said she would never release sensitive information found in the city's employee files.
"Honesty, integrity, confidentiality, respect and professionalism were instilled in me by my parents," she wrote.
Last year, a handful of Hells Angels and Desert Road Riders were acquitted of rioting charges related to a 2009 bar brawl with members of the Vagos in Bullhead City.
