After a three-day trial in Oxford, a federal court jury has ruled that a former Columbus-Lowndes E911 dispatcher was not fired because of her race.
The jury arrived at its decision Wednesday afternoon, more than 14 months after Julia A. Burgin of Columbus filed the civil lawsuit in September 2009.
Burgin was fired because of her job performance and incorrect handling of a 911 call that involved her son.
Her son backed over the garbage bin and knocked trash into the yard of her neighbor, Richard Killer, who allegedly then called her son a racial slur.
Burgin”s son called her, and Kidder called 911, prompting an on-duty Burgin to violate protocol and speak to the responding police officer.
Burgin had wrongfully claimed the E911 board, which is primary composed of white men, had ordered her fired because they were “all known to dislike blacks.”
J.D. Brooks, a foreman with the Lowndes County Road Department, is the only black person sitting on the nine-member board.
Attorneys Berk Huskison and Ronny Roberts, of the Mitchell, McNutt and Sams law firm in Columbus, represented Lowndes County in the case, while Walter Brent McBride, of McBride Law Firm in Tupelo, and T.K. Moffett, of Moffett Law Firm in Amory, represented Burgin.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Neal Biggers presided over the trial.
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