Court Sides With Strongsville in Case Filed by Fired Nurse

An appeals court has upheld a decision to dismiss a case filed by a former nurse at who claimed Strongsville officials unfairly got her fired from her job.

Karla Lucas brought the suit in 2010 after she was terminated as a nurse.

She was fired after Mayor Tom Perciak forwarded concerns to the hospital that Lucas threatened a Strongsville police officer and called him a "pig."

The officer, Thomas O'Deens, said in a memo to Police Chief Charles Goss that Lucas made "threatening and vulgar remarks" to him during an incident at the Lucas home.

Lucas told him she worked in the Southwest emergency room and "hoped to see him in one of her beds" so she could "take care of him," court records show.

Goss forwarded the memo to Perciak, who sent it to the acting CEO at Southwest.

The case stemmed from an incident in May 2007 in which Karla's husband, Tony, received a call from his niece asking him to pick up her sister at the Strongsville police station, according to court documents.

He did and the girl, a minor, spent the night at their house.

The next day, Tony called police and said he did not want to return the girl to her mother's house. The mother, meanwhile, said she wanted to pick up her daughter.

A police sergeant said there was no legal reason for the girl not to be returned to her mother.

O'Deens and Officer Ron Whitney went to the Lucas house, where Karla Lucas became angry that the police were allowing the girl to go home.

According to court testimony, Karla Lucas screamed at O'Deens and called him a "pig." She denied making any threats, records show.

Karla and Tony Lucas charged in the lawsuit that she was defamed by police officers and the Southwest CEO; wrongfully dismissed by Southwest; and that Perciak, the police and hospital intentionally inflicted emotional distress on her.

The suit was dismissed by Common Pleas Judge Michael P. Donnelly on May 27, 2011. 

The Lucases appealed. The appeals court upheld the dismissal in a 2-1 decision.