Man who lost his job as police commissioner after just two days loses suit over his firing

A federal judge yesterday dismissed Dennis White's defamation and due-process suit against the city and former acting Mayor Kim Janey, concluding Janey didn't lie in her explanations for firing White in 2021, let alone say anything that rose to the level of"actual malice:"

[T]he undisputed facts establish that Janey neither misrepresented White’s admissions nor concealed objective facts from the public. None of the statements at issue were materially false - let alone deliberately so. To the contrary, Janey’s public remarks concerning the allegations of domestic abuse tracked conduct to which White had admitted (often on more than one occasion). And, by releasing the Report, Janey provided the public with the objective facts on which any opinions she expressed were based.

In his ruling, US District Court Judge Leo Sorokin also concluded Janey didn't violate White's privacy by releasing details about White's long-running confrontations with his wife or a single fight with his niece over $10 she owed him because those were all contained in public records or became public information when reporters interviewed the parties involved.

Sorokin had earlier dismissed White's claim of discrimination.

White served just two days as commissioner, in February, 2021. Marty Walsh had appointed him commissioner when then Commissioner William Gross unexpectedly quit on Jan. 29, 2021, on Gross's recommendation but with no search and, as it turned out, no investigation into his record.

Walsh, already planning to leave Boston for a job as federal labor secretary, then put White on administrative leave just two days later after the Globe reported on physical incidents between White, his niece and his wife - also a Boston police officer - dating back to the 1990s.

The city hired an employment lawyer to look into White's background; she released her report to city officials after Walsh left for Washington. In June, 2021, Janey, now acting mayor, concluded it was not a record of somebody who should lead Boston Police and, on June, 7, she fired White.

White sued in state court; the city then had the case moved to federal court because of the constitutional and civil-rights issues he raised.

Sorokin concluded there was no point in continuing the rest of the case to a jury because there was no proof in all the documentation provided by White, that Janey had done anything wrong, both in terms of defamation and in allegedly violating White's privacy by releasing details of his past battles, some physical, with his now ex-wife in the Dorchester two-family home they continued to share even after separating, or in an incident with his niece involving an argument over $10 she owed him:

The Report’s contents were either false (according to White), in the public domain already, or not the sort of intimate and private details about which the Privacy Act is concerned. And, in any event, Janey’s decision to release the Report was reasonable given the nature of White’s position, the allegations against him, and the level of public interest.