THE 1ST AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHT TO WRITE

By Dan Rattiner

A whistle-blower who worked as a volunteer in a Southampton Town Animal Shelter three years ago, won a lawsuit against the town for $251,000 on Friday.

Pat Lynch, a former writer and producer for the “NBC Nightly News” and an Emmy award winner, now semi-retired in Sag Harbor, sued the town after being humiliated and abused by town employees at the shelter after writing letters to local newspapers about bad conditions there.

It’s a landmark lawsuit. If it stands up — and the Town could appeal — it will extend First Amendment rights not only to employees of public and private enterprises who see what they think are bad things going on and report them, but also to volunteers who have been previously invited in to help out. These rights are to be offered when a judge and jury determine that the issue at stake is “a matter of public concern.”

In the case of the animal shelter, Lynch was told, after writing her critical letters, that she was to leave the premises immediately, cease her volunteer work and never come back. At a six-day jury trial in Islip, it was shown that she was actually escorted off the premises by three uniformed police officers. In spite of the decision, the ban on her presence at the shelter continues in effect. She was awarded the sum of money for pain and suffering.

Pat Lynch volunteered, as many others did, back in 2004, to walk the dogs. There was room for 24 stray dogs at the town kennel and they were kept there, according to the brochure that was printed up asking for private donations, at a “no-kill” facility. This could be breached for dogs too wild to be trained or too sick to be rehabilitated, as determined by veterinarians.

Lynch observed, and wrote in her columns, that the dogs were often euthanized for very slight provocation and often not with the required approval from a veterinarian. The kennels were unheated, with broken windows, and the animals were often kept in filthy circumstances, or sometimes in isolation for as long as seven days without being taken out for a walk. They often became desperate and then began a self-fulfilling prophecy of being unable to be rehabilitated and thus candidates for euthanasia.

She said that no home checks or vet checks were done by the receptionist who was supposed to do them when she was there, so sometimes a dog that hated children could be placed with children. She gave examples. She said the animal control officers would not offer to walk the animals when they were not doing anything else, saying it was not in their job description. She said all these things were a matter of public concern. A judge and jury agreed with her.

The fact is, shortly after she left the Quogue shelter, it was closed down and a larger facility for 40 strays was built in the Red Creek section of Hampton Bays nearer to the Town Campus where people could keep an eye on it better. Pat Lynch says that the situation today, under the close supervision of management and budget head Richard Blowes, is much improved.