The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has rejected the protests of a former nurse who lost her job after making a snippy comment to a police officer.
Miriam Leverington was a cardiac nurse at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs when she was pulled over in 2008 for speeding on Interstate 25. Things got testy between her and the officer, Duaine Peters, writing her a ticket, and Leverington told Peters, “I hope you are not ever my patient.”
Peters reported the comment to Leverington’s bosses, who fired her. Leverington then sued, saying the dismissal violated her free-speech rights.
She lost the case at district court. And the 10th Circuit shot down her appeal Thursday, concluding that Leverington’s comment was about a matter of personal, not public, concern and thus not sufficiently protected to keep her from getting fired.
