NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — North Huntingdon Township has paid $600,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming its former police chief was fired in retaliation for his testimony in a legal proceeding that upheld the termination of a subordinate officer.
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The suit said Andrew Lisiecki, who served as chief from May 2012 to September 2016, was fired without cause by a “political faction of the township’s government.”
It was claimed in the lawsuit that Lisiecki’s firing violated the United States Constitution and a Pennsylvania law protecting law enforcement officers from termination without notice and a hearing.
The Law Offices of Timothy P. O'Brien announced on Tuesday the settlement, which is believed to be one of the largest achieved in western Pennsylvania on behalf of a law enforcement official in connection with an alleged unlawful termination, according to a news release.
“This lawsuit should send a signal to municipalities throughout Pennsylvania that under Pennsylvania Law and the United States Constitution, no highly capable, experienced and well-trained law enforcement official like Chief Lisiecki -- upon whom the public's safety depends -- should be fired because of petty local politics,” O'Brien said in the release.
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