WINFIELD – A Scott Depot man says he was wrongfully terminated from his paramedic job.
Johnny D. Walls II filed his complaint August 3 in Putnam Circuit Court against Putnam County Emergency Medical Services.
According to the complaint, Walls worked for Putnam EMS in 2013 until he was fired August 5, 2021. His termination letter says he was fired for “continued unsatisfactory job performance,” but Walls says he performed his job in a satisfactory manner and only was the subject of disciplinary action twice.
The first incident, according to the complaint, was in 2019 related to a female employee who was Walls’ prior EMS partner who had filed a complaint alleging issues with Walls. He received a written reprimand and was assigned a male partner.
The second incident was in March 2020 when he received a written reprimand for his high refusal rate, meaning individuals refused ambulance transport after they made a request for 911 service.
Walls says refusal rates are outside of his control. He says, as a paramedic, all he can do is “perform appropriate observation and testing for which he is trained and thereafter to give an honest and informed medical assessment of the patient’s physical or mental condition and whether in their trained opinion a transport to further medical care should occur. What the patient does thereafter based on said information, whether he or she accepts or denies said transport, is wholly out of plaintiff’s control.”
He said he wasn’t willing to coerce a patient by attempting to have him or her believe the condition is worse than what it actually might be.
“Plaintiff cannot independently force a patient to accept recommended transport for medical care, particularly when the patient competently refuses said treatment in writing,” the complaint states.
When he was fired by Putnam EMS Director Kraig Barker and supervisors Chris Bailey and Brian Phillips, Walls said his continued high refusal rate was given as the reason for the termination even though it wasn’t mentioned in the letter and despite not receiving a written reprimand about it for nearly a year and a half.
Walls says he was 56 years old, in good physical and mental health, and just over two years from being eligible for early retirement when he was fired.
He accuses the defendant of unlawful retaliation and age discrimination. He seeks compensatory damages for lost wages and benefits, back pay, front pay and damages for indignity, embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience and emotional distress. He also seeks pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Walls is being represented by Kendal Partlow of Partlow Law Offices in Wayne.
Putnam Circuit Court case number 23-C-102