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Judge orders Conn. firefighters promoted

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 25, 2009 12:10 AM

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

NEW HAVEN -- A US District Court judge ordered that 14 firefighters be promoted and ruled that the city violated their civil rights when the results of fire officer tests were thrown out in 2004 because too few black firefighters passed. The judge ordered that 14 of the plaintiffs be promoted immediately.

The City of New Haven confirmed in a statement Tuesday night that the promotions will be completed as soon as possible, WTNH-TV reported.

The case of Ricci v. DeStefano alleges reverse racism. The lawsuit claimed that New Haven violated the rights of the plaintiffs when it threw out two promotional exams because blacks scored poorly.

The city had claimed, in its own defense, that it threw out the tests out of fear that discrimination lawsuits would arise from the black community. Instead, the 19 white firefighters and one Latino who would have been in line for promotions sued the city.

Firefighters Michael Blatchley, Greg Boivin, Michael Christoforo, Ryan Divito, Steven Durand, Christopher Parker, Frank Ricci, and Mark Vendetto will be promoted to lieutenant.

Advancing to the rank of captain are: Gary Carbone, William Gambardella, Brian Jooss, Matthew Marcarelli, Timothy Scanlon and Benjamin Vargas.

A judge had thrown out the case in 2006. The US Court of Appeals dismissed the claim in 2008. But in June, the US Supreme Court reversed the decision, leading to Tuesday's ruling.

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com