High Court Won't Hear Case of Fired Nurse

The Ohio Supreme Court won't hear 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.

Law Director Ken Kraus said this week that the state Supreme Court declined to hear the matter.

"For all practical purposes, that case is over," Kraus said.

Lucas was terminated fro her job after Mayor Tom Perciak forwarded concerns to the hospital that she had 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.

According to court testimony, Lucas screamed at O'Deens and called him a "pig."

She denied making any threats, records show.

The case stemmed from an incident in May 2007 in which O'Deens and Officer Ron Whitneywent to the Lucases' house to return their niece, who had spent the night there, to her mother. Karla and her husband, Tony, said they did not want the girl to be returned to her home.

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. An appeals court upheld the dismissal in a 2-1 decision.