Two sheriffs' deputies learned the hard way that doing group sex photos with their wives on an adult Website isn't a great career move. First, they were canned; then, a federal judge threw out their suit against their former employers, on grounds the First Amendment doesn't protect public sex.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley, said the Sun-Sentinel, ruled that Ronald Thaeter and Timothy Moran were guilty of a "hard-core" violation of the sheriff's ethics policy, "which any reasonable police officer would have known to be a cause for discipline or dismissal from employment."
Hurley threw out the suit "with prejudice," meaning Thaeter and Moran cannot refile in federal court, the newspaper said. "No one would suggest that the First Amendment protects public fornication," Hurley ruled, adding the need for sheriff's credibility "would unquestionably outweigh the deputies' interest in pursuing a side career in professional sexual performances."
The unnamed Website in question was run by the wife of a third deputy, Jack Maxwell, who also participated, the Sun-Sentinel said. The newspaper didn't exactly suggest it, but one particular photo – a nude woman leaning against Maxwell's patrol car – might have triggered the controversy, with Maxwell resigning after an October 2000 complaint to the sheriff's office and Moran and Thaeter fighting their terminations.
They almost won, the Sun-Sentinel said, because the sheriff's ethics code requirement of deputies' private lives "unsullied, as an example to all," was thought so vague by investigators that it couldn't be enforced. And investigator Paul Kronsperger thought there wasn't enough evidence to fire the two deputies, the paper continued, with a five-deputy panel agreeing on a 4-1 vote.
Tell it to Sheriff Ed Bieluch, who fired the pair anyway, the paper said. And when the two appealed, the panel voted 3-2 for them – short of the 4-1 required to overturn the sheriff. That prodded the pair to sue for re-employment, over a year's back pay, and over $1 million each, the paper continued.
