Erin Achenbach//January 8, 2025//
A jury sided with a plaintiff in his case against the Missouri Department of Corrections, alleging that he was terminated in response for giving testimony against his department at trial.
The Jackson County jury awarded plaintiff Danny Petifurd $3.8 million on April 19, 2024. The trial was presided over by Judge J. Dale Youngs. Petifurd had been employed at the Kansas City Reentry Center as a maintenance supervisor from 2013 until October 2019, when he was terminated.
Petifurd claimed in his suit his dismissal was in retaliation to testimony he gave against the department during a trial in a separate case against it. Petifurd testified during trial in that case on Oct. 10, 2019, and was terminated 15 days later.
The defendants claimed Petifurd was terminated because he admitted he perjured himself in a deposition in another case in 2018.
The plaintiff’s lead attorney, Eric Playter of Playter Trial Lawyers in Kansas City, said his client was satisfied that he received “vindication for essentially getting fired for telling the truth.”
“The evidence was pretty clear … They didn’t discipline him for the wrongdoing, they fired him when they knew he was going to come clean about what happens at the Missouri Department of Corrections,” Playter said.
Player views Petifurd’s case as an example of the power of the status quo.
“Long short of it is … (there are) multiple verdicts against the Missouri Department of Corrections and Mr. Petifurd is, in my view, an example of what goes on when people try to do the right thing. They still get discriminated against and lose their job instead of the department making real change,” he said. “The status quo never changes … the verdict itself, we’re very happy with.”
Playter added he hopes every verdict such as Petifurd’s will be seen as a public statement that will eventually lead to substantive change instead of litigation.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office did not respond to a call for comment.
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- Amount of verdict, judgment or settlement: $3.8 million
- Breakdown of verdict: $195,000 for back pay; $43,000 for past economic losses, excluding back pay; $462,000 for future economic losses; $600,000 for non-economic losses; and $2.5 million for punitive damages
- Type of action: Employment (employment discrimination)
- Type of action description: Retaliatory discharge
- Venue: Jackson County
- Case Number/Date: 2116-CV23428, 4/19/2024
- Caption: Danny Petifurd v. State of Missouri Department of Corrections
- Plaintiff’s Attorneys: Eric Playter of Playter Trial Lawyers and Brianne N. Thomas of Boyd Kenter Thomas & Parrish
- Defendant’s Attorneys: Nic Taulbee and Ashley Wicks of the Missouri Attorney General’s office in Kansas City
This article credit to MOLawyersMedia