Judge: NY Officer's Rights Violated

Tuesday, November 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A federal judge ruled that the First Amendment rights of a veteran police officer who wore disguises as she publicly criticized the police department were violated when she was fired.

The city says it fired Yvette Walton, 39, because of insubordination and violating departmental orders regulating sick leave.

But a judge concluded Monday that the department would not have dismissed Walton last year if she had not criticized it after the Feb. 4, 1999, shooting of Amadou Diallo, who died after being shot 41 times by police officers.

Walton had worn disguises or had her voice electronically altered as she criticized the department at a news conference, on a national television program and at a City Council meeting in early 1999.

Walton, the only black woman assigned to street patrols when she joined the newly created Street Crime Unit in 1993, was moved out of the unit in 1995 after she concluded that it engaged in racially discriminatory practices and targeted minorities in illegal searches and seizures.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said in his written ruling that Walton's disguises, which included a black leather jacket, a heavy gray hood, dark glasses and a scarf across her face, did not shield her from the wrath of her bosses.

Hellerstein said the Police Department knew it was Walton who had criticized the agency at a Feb. 14 news conference conducted by the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement organization.

``The Police Department's denial of this knowledge is not credible,'' the judge wrote. He concluded that her dismissal was in retaliation for the exercise of her First Amendment rights.

Lorna Goodman, a city spokeswoman, said the ruling would be appealed.

``This woman had in fact been dismissed, given a second chance and then abused her sick leave privileges, which is the reason she was finally terminated.''