A lawsuit filed in 2021 against the city of Lynchburg by a man later elected to the city council was dismissed by a federal judge on Wednesday.
Marty Misjuns, at the time a captain with the Lynchburg Fire Department, claimed that the city and its top officials at the time violated his rights to free speech and religion after he posted an image on social media that some residents decried as transphobic. The post prompted several discussions and meetings with fire department and city leadership, and Misjuns was later fired. In 2022, Misjuns was elected as a Republican to the Lynchburg City Council.
U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon tossed out much of the lawsuit in April 2023, which Misjuns unsuccessfully appealed. Moon allowed Misjuns’ First Amendment claims against the city to proceed “based on suing the Individual Defendants in their official capacities,” referring to then-Mayor MaryJane Dolan, then-Vice Mayor Beau Wright and then-interim City Manager Reid Wodicka, who had been dropped as defendants in the case.
The matter was scheduled to go to trial in Lynchburg next week. But U.S. District Court Judge Robert Ballou, who took over the case in May 2023, dismissed the remainder of the case on Wednesday.
In a four-page opinion attached to the dismissal, Ballou said the lawsuit was “improperly permitted to continue” on its remaining claim. The court had previously decided that Misjuns “failed to allege that the City acted through official policy or custom,” and allowing Misjuns’ remaining claim against the city based on the actions of individuals was “not permissable.”
Requests for comment from the Lynchburg city attorney and outside counsel representing the city in this case were not immediately returned.
In a joint statement Thursday, Misjuns’ lawyers, Rick Boyer and JD Fairchild, vowed to appeal the decision to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Court’s decision was anticipated, given its earlier dismissal of the municipal liability claim against the City,” the statement reads. “Discovery has shown that Mr. Misjuns’ First Amendment rights were violated and he was wrongfully terminated. The City’s actions are a clear violation of its own policies and cannot go unchallenged.”
