TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — A man that sued the Cherokee Nation is now awaiting a ruling from the judge.
David Comingdeer, a Cherokee man, was awarded $615,000 after a jury unanimously voted in his favor after he claimed he was retaliated against by the Cherokee Nation after whistleblowing about the loss of a firefighting grant.
Comingdeer is alleging he was forced to quit his job after blowing the whistle on the loss of a grant that employed 25 tribal members.
For more than 20 years, Comingdeer worked as a firefighter for Cherokee Nation. The tribe previously contracted firefighters through a US Forestry Services grant. But according to Comingdeer and his lawyer, Chad Smith, that grant was about to be taken away because of a problem with the tribes paying the firefighters. So Comingdeer blew the whistle, which he said got him suspended twice without pay, a transfer from the fire department to an office job and then left that job in 2016.
“After a few months, he said I just can’t take it. He resigns. So there was the constructive discharge which was filed under constructive discharge and breach of freedom of speech and whistleblowing statute,” Smith said.
Following this, Comingdeer hired Smith, a lawyer and former Cherokee Chief, who then brought the suit against the Cherokee Nation. Then on Thursday, a jury of six deliberated for one hour, finding the Cherokee Nation violated Comingdeer’s freedom of speech and created intolerable conditions that led him to quit his job.
“There were actually three counts," Smith said." The judge gets to decide one count which is the whistleblowing and what to do with the jury verdict."
The judge will also decide if the jury’s decision is appropriate for the judgment. 2 News Oklahoma reached out to the Cherokee Nation, who sent this statement:
"I disagree with the jury's advisory verdict in this employment case from 2016 and await the judge's final order," said Cherokee Nation Senior Assistant Attorney General Greg Calvert.
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