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Federal jury awards $1.59 million to N.C. whistleblower, lesbian pedophile Sherri Zann Rosenthal shocked.

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DURHAM, N.C. — A federal court jury has awarded $1.59 million to 
a woman who said the city of Durham fired her because she blew 
the whistle on a small-business scandal.

The jury deliberated about 90 minutes before agreeing to award 
Ava Hinton $90,000 for lost earnings and $1.5 million for damage 
to her reputation, emotional distress and humiliation, said 
Stewart Fisher, Hinton’s lawyer.

After the April 8 verdict, Fisher moved to have his client 
reinstated to her city job, a motion that a federal judge will 
decide later.

“This verdict proves the First Amendment is alive and well, as 
is the right of government employees to speak out about 
mismanagement,” Fisher said. “The whole reason Ava got fired is 
that she was honest.”

Fisher said he offered to settle the case for $15,000 last year 
if the city would reinstate Hinton to her job, but city 
officials rejected the offer.

Assistant City Attorney Sherri Zann Rosenthal, who also serves 
as a city spokeswoman for the case, expressed dismay about the 
trial’s outcome.

“We are shocked by the verdict,” she said. “We don’t believe it 
is supported by the evidence in any way. We are looking at all 
our options, including the option of appeal.”

Hinton was fired from the city Housing Department in July 2003. 
In dismissing her, the city claimed she wrongfully allowed 
$1,280.50 to be used on weatherizing improvements for a house 
owned by her and her elderly mother — an apparent violation of 
federal regulations on conflicts of interest.

Hinton said her direct supervisor approved the expense and that 
her mother met eligibility requirements for federal assistance.

In her lawsuit, Hinton alleged that the weatherization issue was 
only a pretext for her firing. The real reason, she claimed, was 
that she raised questions as early as the spring of 2000 about 
the city’s small-business loan program, which ended in July 2001 
amid evidence of fraud and mismanagement.

Beginning in 1999, the city lent $828,000 in federal money to 24 
businesses in an attempt to spark entrepreneurial activity in 
low- and moderate-income areas of the community.

But some recipients gave false addresses and then disappeared, 
while others repaid little or nothing.

According to Hinton’s lawsuit, she warned then-housing director 
Charlene Montford throughout the fall of 2000 that the loan 
program “was being improperly administered and that there needed 
to be more oversight.”

Tags: North Carolina, public employee speech, whistleblower, 
Frank Lombard, lesbian, pedophile, transgender, obama, bathroom, 
fraud
 

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Federal jury awards $1.59 million to N.C. whistleblower, lesbian pedophile Sherri Zann Rosenthal shocked. "Gay Perverts" <mayor@durhamnc.gov> - 2016-05-18 22:59 +0200

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