Ex-Cop With PTSD After Pulse Shooting Sues for $1M, Alleging Harassment

Monday, December 11, 2017 | 0

A first responder to the Pulse nightclub shooting who has become a voice for workers' compensation reform in Florida has sued the City of Orlando and its Police Department for $1 million, alleging harassment and intimidation at the hands of his superiors.

Gerry Realin

Gerry Realin, 37, accuses his former coworkers at the Orlando Police Department of harassing him and creating an unsafe work environment, the Orlando Sentinel reports. 

Realin was on the team that removed bodies from the nightclub after the June 12, 2016, attack, which killed 49 people. During the five-hour cleanup, the team did not wear eye protection, which violates federal work-safety standards, the lawsuit says. 

And afterward, when Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and took leave from work, his superiors harassed him, the suit says. 

Realin was hit with a constant barrage of emails, texts and phone calls, and at one point, Deputy Chief Orlando Rolon showed up at a gas station Realin was at with his family to tell him he needed to "get over it and move on," the suit says. 

Realin's wife, Jessica, told CBS-affiliated news station WKMG-TV 6 that the lawsuit isn't a vendetta but a move to force the Orlando Police Department to change its PTSD policies. 

"Our family has a heavy heart as the city that my husband so proudly served for 13 years has forced us to file suit," Jessica Realin said in a statement provided to WKMG on Friday. "We look forward to hopefully addressing outdated policies that allow the city of Orlando and the Orlando Police Department to neglect, harass and discriminate against their employees that come forward when they are injured and need help." 

With the help of his attorney, Paolo Longo, Realin and his wife have become a voice for reforming Florida's laws on workers' compensation benefits for first responders. 

Jessica Realin went door-to-door this spring in support of Orlando Democratic Sen. Victor Torres' SB 1088, which would have given first responders access to PTSD benefits.

That bill did not pass, but a similar proposal by another senator has gained momentum ahead of the 2018 legislative session. 

Realin's lawsuit against the Orlando Police Department comes the same week that a PTSD-stricken police officer from a neighboring department was dismissed just six months shy of vesting into the pension system. 

Cpl. Omar Delgado told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that state lawmakers need to do more to support first responders with PTSD.