Village responsible for medical bills

June 22, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

WARREN

A common-pleas court judge has ruled in favor of Jim Luonuansuu, a former dispatcher for the Lordstown Police Department, in a suit he filed last year seeking $880.

Luonuansuu, of Newton Falls, was fired from his dispatching job in June 2011 after he filed a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint and a civil lawsuit against the village for requiring him to pay for $880 worth of medical evaluations.

Luonuansuu maintained the village should pay for the evaluations because the village ordered them, and the village made the doctor appointments.

Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court ruled June 8 that the village was responsible for the costs. The judge also ordered that the village pay interest on the money and court costs.

Arno Hill, Lordstown mayor, previously said the EEOC complaint was the event that caused village council to fire Luonuansuu, because an agreement Luonuansuu and the village signed in 2010 prohibited Luonuansuu from filing any type of complaint or legal action against the village.

The agreement, known as a last-chance agreement, came about after Luonuansuu was disciplined in 2010 for more than one instance of sleeping during his shift as a midnight dispatcher.

Luonuansuu’s EEOC complaint was filed because the medical evaluations Luonuansuu was ordered to have resulted from a medical condition Luonuansuu has. That medical condition is protected under federal law, said Atty. Mike Hostler of the Fraternal Order of Police union in North Royalton, which provides legal representation to Luonuansuu.

When contacted Thursday, Hill said Judge Kontos’ ruling won’t have any immediate effect on whether the village offers Luonuansuu his job back because the ruling was focused just on whether Luonuansuu or the village is responsible for the medical bills.

Luonuansuu said he could not comment on Judge Kontos’ ruling because his EEOC complaint is still pending.