Hempfield settles whistleblower suit

The Hempfield Area School District has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by its former assistant athletic director, who alleged he was fired after alerting police about the disappearance of money from the school.

Mike Burrell had alleged he was dismissed from his post and a second job as ticket manager because he reported the disappearance and sudden reappearance of $2,400 from the office of Athletic Director Greg Meisner in 2008.

The two sides agreed Thursday during a settlement conference overseen by U.S. District Court Judge David Cercone that Burrell would receive a $50,000 settlement.

School directors were polled by telephone yesterday about the settlement. The board could ratify the deal publicly when it meets Monday.

The last-minute settlement occurred as the case was headed for trial Monday.

After police began an investigation into the disappearance, the money reappeared but was $20 more than had been missing. State police ended their probe without filing any charges.

Board President John Henry and Meisner did not respond to a request for comment.

Directors Diane Ciabattoni, Sonya Brajdic and Jeff Weber opposed the agreement.

"I don't think Mike Burrell was in the wrong," Ciabattoni said. "I think we killed the messenger."

Brajdic said she would have preferred to see the case go to trial.

"Some things should have come out in the open," she said. "Quite frankly, some board members have said they would never vote to pay Mike, and now they're voting to pay him now that it was coming to trial.

"They're afraid some things might come out."

Weber said the $50,000 settlement is way out of line.

"I think one dime is too much," he said. "I think we had a strong case. I don't want to give anybody a dime who doesn't deserve it."

Weber said it was Hempfield's bad luck to have the case assigned to Cercone, "who bullied everyone into a settlement that was unfair.

"I'm thoroughly disgusted by it," he said.

"I'm glad the whole unfortunate event is behind us," said Director Joe Lutz. "Moving forward, I'm going to work closely with the board to make sure we don't find ourselves in a situation like this again."

Director Will Shay said he voted for the deal to save the district money because a trial would have been expensive.

"I think if push came to shove, we could have won it," Shay said. "We, as a board, did nothing wrong. The settlement is the lesser of two evils."

Other directors did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached for comment.

After Burrell discovered the money was missing, he notified school officials, who ordered him to call police. The police advised Burrell not to discuss the investigation with Meisner.

Meisner was in Kentucky over the weekend when Burrell discovered the cash was missing.

When he arrived home, Meisner contacted Burrell, took him to the athletic office and demonstrated for him the ease with which the cabinet lock, where the money was kept, could be breached.

The two men returned to the office on Monday, at which time Meisner found a manila envelope wedged beneath Burrell's desk containing $2,420 in newer bills, although the missing money was comprised of smaller denominations, according to the lawsuit.

According to documents filed in the lawsuit, Meisner had a habit of borrowing small amounts of money from the athletic fund, which was comprised of cash from ticket sales to sporting events.

In April, Cercone denied a motion by the district and Meisner to dismiss the suit, ruling that a jury could infer that Meisner knew police viewed him as a suspect and that he was the focus of the investigation.