Ridgewood firefighter awarded $3.5 million in promotion lawsuit
MONDAY JANUARY 23, 2012, 6:31 PM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A jury awarded $3.5 million on Monday to a Ridgewood fireman who alleged that the village denied him a promotion because he blew the whistle on policy violations at the Fire Department.
Kevin Reilly alleged that he reported two incidents in which firefighter safety was compromised because of violations by his superiors.
He reported those violations to higher-ups, he said, but instead of taking corrective actions, the supervisors passed him over for promotion to lieutenant and gave him unflattering reviews without his knowledge.
A jury in Superior Court in Hackensack agreed with Reilly on Monday with a 6-0 verdict, awarding him the entire amount for emotional distress.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Ridgewood_firefighter_awarded_35_million_in_promotion_lawsuit.html
39 comments:
The jury was 100% right in principle, but the amount of money is ridiculous.
wasn't Bombase the Chief when it happened?
The Record did not name the deputy chief and the fire chief involved. Would these be the Bombace brothers and, if so, is that why they retired?
Who was the higher ups that he reported it to?
Will Bombose I hope you can take as good as you give.
Bombaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Do I agree with the amount? NO, but he reported safety violations and was penalized for doing so; he should be compensated in some way.
I do not know Kevin Reilly, but he has my respect and admiration. Not knowing the particulars in the case, I have to believe that the 6-0 verdict to award him 3.5M must have been warranted. Can you imagine what the judgment would have been had Kevin been critically injured or worse yet killed while on the job ... 10M? This is a very expensive lesson for the Ridgewood Fire Department ... let's hope they learned it. God bless you Kevin Reilly for going the distance and keeping your fellow firefighters safe.
who were "his superiors" ???
Jim Bombace was his superior and Mark Bombace was the other Lieut. Thanks boys for costing us millions!!!!
So, how did these losers manage to keep their names out of the article?
its because the Bergen Record kisses Paul Aronsohn's you know what because he was Saint Mac Creepy's mouth piece and the Bombases are his buddies
does the fire Chief have any liability in this? The supervisors sound like real dopes
Ok Ridgewood Views, lets see if you run this article. NOT!
I wonder if Jim and Mark Bombace believe in karma. If they didn't before, I bet they do now.
The 3.5 million is way too much. These NJ jury awards are way out of line with reality. Perhaps the Village should sue the supervisors responsible for this and take it out of their pensions.
I guess this makes Gabberts $20k raise seem like chicken doo doo.
how hi did this go,hum.
You have to think that there is no way Reilly can go back, and feel safe on the job... His career is probably over with them. Bombace as chief back then... That right there says it all....
Reilly feel safe!! Now the firefighter's are safe. Who tells an officer you better sleep with one eye open?
If you sat in that court room and heard what all the firefighter's
had to say,you say that F.D. is better off with out him. 3.5 million is the price the village has to pay,to get rid of a crazy.angry sick person.And if he does return to F.D. the village will have 40 more law suits!!
NOW REILLY HAS THE CASH TO RUN HIS BUSINESS FROM HOME NOT THE FIREHOUSE.
Hey 8:06 Lets get the facts right,Mark Bombace was never Deputy Chief.
Hey 5:54 I never said Mark Bombace was Deputy Chief. I questioned whether he was.
The Village gets what it deserves.All of these fireman would be on welfare if it wasn't for a cush job like this.Work less than 100 days a year for the $ they make.Live in the real world.The Bombace Brothers are idiots and have been for a long time I could recognize this as a 10 yr old kid living in the same neighborhood.Add the disgusting politics of "The Village" and this is what you get.As far a running a business out of the firehouse LMAO there is a bunch of them who do.The real question is Does Ridgewood really need a paid fire dept? Probably not considering that they only spend 1% of the time on the job fighting fires and the rest of the time with bs like this.
Good for him. Everytime you read in the middle of the year, someone retires, someone resigns, there's usually more to the the story.
These morons are being paid white collar salaries for blue collar work.By the time you factor in the cash and other $ they all make with their side businesses probably works out somewhere close to 200k a year. The real joke comes from the character who made the comment about telling an officer to sleep with one eye open. As if there is really a chain of command when the Chief has no problem with putting subordinates in harms way.How does that work? What happened to leading by example ? Especially in a Town like Ridgewood .I mean really who are these guys kidding? They call themselves Firefighters? Why? Because they have a uniform,sleep in a firehouse,have a badge,drive a firetruck.Something tells me this kind of crap does not go on in a working dept. like FDNY,Newark,Jersey City .... You know like where the firefighters are getting a paycheck for actually putting themselves in harms way to save others.You know the way you used to look at these people when you were a kid ...... Like a Hero. Now they are juvenile Political figurines who get paid boatloads of $ to ultimately play a part in the demise of the municipal economy.We should all be so lucky
Think about it, you have a state job, sign a contract, and then you leave. If it was Medical it states medical. These people resign, retire, right in the middle for the year. And another thing I want to complain about is my husband last year leaves 30 in an envelope for about 15 minutes, mystically disappears. I call the teacher who was at the desk, told she reviewed the tape, and couldn't find anything. so what does that mean the tapes don"t work, or something else? Look peple, I vote Lisa Caron on board.
Sounds like a bit of jealousy within the Dept. After doing some research Mr. Reilly seems to have more credentials then one might imagine.Can't wait to read the court transcripts once they are available
I found out the same thing on Reilly's credentials. ****Kevin J. Reilly is a member of the Ridgewood NJFD; FDIC HOT Instructor, Member, Board of Directors: Fire Safety Directors Association of New York City (FSDNY) and Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC); Emergency Action Plan (EAP) writer and High-Rise / Life Safety Consultant in NYC; Contributing author to the book, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, edited by Dr. David Penney (October, 2007); creator of Reilly- Emergency Breathing Technique; founder of FSP Instruments, Inc.; Co-founder of www.FirefighterSafety.net. Kevin has also been previously published in Fire Engineering, “Chronic CO Poisoning in Firefighters”- June 2006. and “Rethinking Emergency Air Management” – April 2008***
Contributing Author, and member of that NYC association speaks volumes to me. The problem must have been jealosy, or something personel to have be passed over for the position he stated.
@ 8:06- I think David Yaden was dept chief at the time of those reported safety issues. And then look how the Village awards such irresponsible behavior of an officer making what? I'm sure it was at least 150K a year as Deputy Chief. After the Village retires the Fire Safety inspectors position, look who gets hired privately by the town; yes this guy Yaden who is now making how much a year by inspecting the town now with his private company, as we pay him how much a year with his pension already? This is just the tip of the iceberg I'm sure... Do we need a paid Fire Dept?
I think he might see putting this vote to the state as a way of allowing marriage equality to pass or fail without being blamed when his time comes to run for President.
Get your fact straight and stop trying to stir it up. Yaden does not work for the Village in any capacity
10:38 Reilly "j" wow
I find it funny that you can easily tell that the only people bashing Reilly on this blog are the jealous firefighters he works with.Everybody has the same opportunity to further their knowledge and become as accredited as Reilly.They just choose not to .They would rather just pull someone's hose and blame someone else when it doesn't go their way
the bashers are bombase and their friends
Good O'L Ridgewood Boys Club at it again.Someone should research the term "New Blood" it might change the Same o'l song and dance being done for the past 35 yrs
Reilly was passed up because he has an uncontrollable temper. Not the kind of person you want in the position of directing men in dangerous situations. That is why he's consistantly passed up. 3.5 million? Give me a break. End of story.
Sounds like another Jealous Ridgewood Wanna Call myself a Fireman comment .You all are pathetic .Reading Reilly's credentials and not being able to find much of anything on anyone else in the Dept really makes me wonder.The Village should can all of you and require the cops to complete fire 1 &2 before they leave the academy so the taxpayers don't have to keep spending money for you fools to occupy space and get paid to investigate smoke from someone's kitchen stove.There are plenty of other towns in the wealthy bergen county that do just fine with a vol.dept.I know I know Valley hospital.... They can pay out of their pocket to employ 6 guys to man the trucks in case of incident.They seem to have so much money to piss around for buildings ,gardens,art.... They are thieves also
Was he passed up because he had an uncontrollable temper or Did he have an uncontrollable temper because he was passed up ? The Jury seemed to have heard both sides and ruled on the latter.All I know is that the whole thing is nothing more than a bunch of child acting adults causing the Village a fortune.I agree with the last post .I did not feel any less safe living in Franklin Lakes with a Vol.Fire Dept.before moving to Ridgewood. I imagine these salary's are costing taxpayers over 5 mil.per year.
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