Jury awards former Chattanooga cop $680,000 in federal lawsuit

Thursday, September 15, 2011

photo Former Chattanoooga Police officer Mickel Hoback, right, leaves the Joel W. Solomon Federal Court Building Thursday with one of his attorneys, Michael Richardson. Hoback was fired in from the Chattanooga Police Department in 2009 and was awarded 680,000 in back pay and damages by a Federal jury today.

A federal jury this morning awarded a former Chattanooga Police Department officer $680,000 in damages related to his July 2009 firing from the department.

Mickel Hoback sued the city to get his job back with back pay and benefits. He also asked for $1.5 million in damages.

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier said the jury could not award Hoback his job back. In February, a Chancery Court judge ordered the city to return the officer to work. That state case is under appeal by the city.

Former Police Chief Freeman Cooper had fired Hoback after an evaluation from a city-hired psychologist deemed the officer "unfit for duty" in relation to a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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