Navy Cross Marine, Iraq Veteran Cheated by Sheriff's Office

"But, according to Montoya, the Navy Cross honors also sparked the wrath of fellow deputies who resented his celebrity. They hazed and heckled him for years. The harassment centered on his military service. There were persistent, deputy-spread rumors that he'd exaggerated his Iraqi War bravery because he's a publicity hound. In one instance, a deputy mocked him by placing a giant dildo and lube jar on his work gear before a shift. Instead of siding with him, department officials often backed his tormenters through inaction, and then unfairly terminated him from his dream job, Montoya claims in a pending federal lawsuit."
(Sergeant Scott Montoya's Strange Fall, OC Weekly, R. Scott Moxley, July 25, 2013)

That is the story behind all of this.

Marine Hero Deputy Cheated By Orange County Sheriff's Department Wants $2 Million
Orange County Weekly
By R. Scott Moxley
Jan. 17 2014

A deputy wrongly fired from his $99,000 per year post after enduring an anti-military bias inside the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) is asking a federal judge to award him $1.964 million for income he would have gained if he'd been allowed to finish his career and retire at the department.

Late last year, a federal jury concluded that OCSD illegally harassed and discriminated against Scott Montoya after the deputy returned from combat duty as a U.S. Marine in Iraq and earned the prestigious Navy Cross for his life-saving heroics while under enemy fire.

Rejecting OCSD arguments that Montoya was fired for being an unethical moron and that even if the jury found in the terminated deputy's favor on the hostile work environment issues they couldn't award him any money, jurors nonetheless handed the war hero more than $206,000 for prior, lost wages and another $41,800 for improperly confiscated vacation pay.

U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal decided it's his lone right to determine if Montoya--now unemployable because of post traumatic stress disorder--is also entitled to "front pay," or money he would have earned if he'd remained a deputy until the age of 63.
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