Walt Disney Company officials fired employee Garrick Pietro for three
times failing to alert them in advance that he wasn't going to work
before his 5 a.m. shifts in 2008.
Though prior notice was clearly required by company rules–rules that also state three violations
would result in termination, Pietro sued Disney for disability
discrimination in the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Orange County.
According to
Pietro, he was targeted by callous company officials because his failure
to obey policy hinged on him being diagnosed with the beginning stages
of prostate cancer.
]
But this month, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, a President Bill Clinton appointee, granted summary judgement for Disney by noting in key part that the prostate cancer hadn't reasonably prevented Pietro from obeying the rules by calling his shift manager in advance of skipping work.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.