Opinion
No. CV-98-0579805
February 19, 1999
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION ON STATE OF CONNECTICUT'S MAY 4, 1998, APPLICATION TO VACATE
The dispositive issue in this case is whether the State of Connecticut has an explicit, well-defined and dominant public policy prohibiting the retention of an employee — in this case, a youth corrections officer — who has made an anonymous, racist, indecent phone call from work, using a state telephone, directed at a third party. The answer is clearly "yes". The state's May 4, 1998, Application to Vacate is therefore granted and the defendant's December 22, 1998, cross-application to confirm is denied.
Specifically, the message at issue, left on State Senator Alvin Penn's telephone answering machine, was as follows:
Yeah, hey uh Mr. Penn, this is one of the correction officers that you referred to as a . . . as a . . . as a criminal. Who the fuck are you to call a criminal you fucking cock-sucking crack-fucking nigger.
The arbitrator did not choose to include this language in his award.
Most of the facts pertinent to this decision are found in the arbitrator's award which is set out in its entirety below:
STATE OF CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF LABOR STATE BOARD OF MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION ARBITRATION AWARD
In the matter of: