Former Seattle police officer sues city for wrongful termination, retaliation over Covid vaccine mandate

Former police officer and operations manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Brett J. Rogers, who worked for the city for over 20 years, said in court documents obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that the city violated his constitutional rights by denying him due process and failing to accommodate his religious beliefs.

In the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, Rogers claimed that Seattle unfairly targeted employees with religious objections to the vaccine and retaliated against them. According to the complaint, “The City rescinded its vaccine mandate within 12 months of the date of Rogers’ termination, and Rogers’ position was still vacant. Had defendants performed job searches for employees with religious exemptions, Rogers could have, and should have, been reinstated.”

Rogers was granted a religious exemption from Seattle’s vaccine requirement in October 2021. Despite going through the exemption process twice, once with each agency, instead of allowing him to continue working remotely, as he had for months, the city fired him in April 2022.

The city accommodated employees with medical exemptions but denied similar accommodations to those with religious exemptions. The lawsuit alleged, “Defendants established a policy and practice where very few, if any, employees with religious exemptions would be accommodated, yet provided accommodations to employees with medical exemptions.”

Rogers said when he originally applied for a religious exemption, the city provisionally denied his request without asking follow-up questions, despite claiming they had an interactive process. According to the suit, “The City apparently had established some sort of pre-determined and undisclosed criteria for evaluating exemption requests.”

Rogers claims that when he complained about the process to then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and other officials in October 2021, they retaliated against him, excluding him from key meetings and decision-making processes.

He was also allegedly stripped of his portfolio of responsibilities and benched from contract negotiations. Additionally, city officials allegedly deliberately avoided reinstating him even after lifting the vaccine mandate in 2023. His previous position had been posted as available just days before the mandate was rescinded, but he was never informed of the opportunity or invited to re-apply. Instead, he was told that only “separated employees are able to apply for open positions.”

Many Seattle, police officers, transit workers, and firefighters have said that they had similar experiences, indicating a pattern of discrimination against those with religious objections to the vaccine. Several have also filed suit against the city. The city has also refused to hire back many of those who were terminated despite the vaccine mandate being lifted.

According to the lawsuit, Rogers’ termination violated his right to due process under the 14th Amendment, and the Seattle Civil Service Commission (CSC) failed to provide him with a meaningful appeal, instead referring his case to the Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR). “During the nearly three years since the City terminated Rogers’ employment and 20 months since CSC referred Rogers’ appeal to SOCR, no administrative appeal hearing has been held."

Rogers is seeking reinstatement or financial damages for lost wages, emotional distress and other costs and for the court to declare Seattle’s civil service appeal process unconstitutional.