Firefighter Demoted After Investigation Into Text Messages, Racist Statements

An East Lake firefighter accused of sending racist text messages has been demoted.

Lt. James Finley was demoted to driver-engineer on May 24, following a departmental investigation. During an April 23 board meeting, Lt. Bill Figueredo told fire commissioners that Finley sent the text messages to him and made racist statements against him (read the details). 

"The inquiry revealed that there was sufficient evidence gathered from witnesses that stepped forward and gave either signed affidavits or provided us in writing, incidents in which they had either heard Mr. Finley use some of the derogatory terms that were referenced to Mr. Figueredo or that they had received or seen one of the texts that was allegedly sent by Mr. Finley," said East Lake Fire Rescue Chief Tom Jamison.

Finley had also accused Figueredo of racist behavior. He said Finley made disparaging remarks against minorities. East Lake Fire Commission Chairman Mark Weinkrantz also accused Figueredo of giving him a Nazi salute. 

Neither of the allegations against Figueredo had any supporting witnesses, according to Chief Jamison. However Figueredo  was demoted from lieutenant to driver-engineer for other reasons. Figueredo was appealing the demotion when he told fire commissioners that Finley had sent racist text messages and statements. 

Tuesday evening, fire commissioners voted to restore Figueredo to his position as lieutenant (read the details).

Chief Jamison says he has taken steps to prevent any future occurrences of the unacceptable behavior.

"We have undertaken a very intensive training and remediation program to make sure that everybody understands what is acceptable behavior, what isn't acceptable behavior and to prevent this from happening in the future."

Related-

• Racism Allegations: Demoted Firefighter's Case Appears Headed to Arbitration
• East Lake Fire Rescue Racism Allegations on Special Meeting Agenda
• Racism Allegations: East Lake Fire Chief Wants Independent Investigation 

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