PBA Obtains Successful Outcome For North Carolina Member

Jun 27, 2024

PBA member Officer David Clay had been a correctional officer at Scotland Correctional Institution for approximately twelve years prior to his dismissal. The dismissal arose from a use of force incident involving multiple officers.  Officer Clay filed a grievance with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction (“DAC”), but the agency upheld the dismissal.

SSPBA assigned counsel J. Heydt Philbeck and Philip A. Collins to represent Officer Clay in an appeal before the Office of Administrative Hearings. Counsel engaged in rigorous discovery with the DAC, including obtaining video evidence. Approximately two weeks prior to the scheduled hearing, DAC’s counsel requested that the parties engage in a mediated settlement conference. At that time, Officer Clay was employed with a county detention facility and had no interest in returning to work at Scotland Correctional.  However, he had been unemployed for eight months prior to securing that position.

At the recent mediation, DAC agreed to pay Officer Clay his entire eight months of back pay, to allow him to resign, and to change his designation from dismissal to resignation in the state personnel system and to remove adverse disciplinary documents from his personnel file in the event he wanted to return to state employment.  With SSPBA’s assistance, Officer Clay was able to recover everything he wanted in his appeal without ever having to go through a hearing or be deposed.

SSPBA is proud of this successful outcome for our member and grateful for the expertise of attorneys Philbeck and Collins in obtaining this result.