Jim Rosica
A former officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is suing for his job back, saying he was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on wrongdoing.
Travis Hooker filed suit last week in Leon County Circuit Civil Court under the state’s whistleblower law. The decorated combat Marine, who was stationed in Iraq, was a lieutenant in the FWC’s law enforcement division.
He alleged that his October 2015 firing came after alerting superiors that another officer was attending his son’s Little League games while on duty.
The suit says the proof is in computer-aided dispatch records that show the individual logged in as working, but at the baseball fields.
Instead, Hooker himself got in trouble because he declined to name other FWC employees who had tipped him off.
Instead of investigating the other employee, FWC officials tried to “damage (Hooker’s) reputation,” according to an earlier court filing.
Hooker was paid $52,601 a year, according to a state salary database. He is represented by several lawyers, including Tallahassee attorney Steve Andrews.
An FWC spokesman declined a request for comment, saying the agency does not weigh in on pending litigation.
