The City of Celina filed a Plea to the Jurisdiction back on the 180th day after the lawsuit was filed. In the plea, the City stated they believed Scott could not sue them because the two written statements he provided did not constitute “reporting to a proper law enforcement agency”. However, missing from their plea was the verbal statement he made to the Denton County Sheriff’s Office. After filing their plea, and just before a hearing scheduled on August 12th, the City asked Scott’s attorney to give them time to read over their response. Their team graciously gave them until today, August 31st.

Today, the Judge in the 44th District Court ruled in favor of Scott in all 3 counts that both his written statements and also the verbal statement were absolutely warranted in the whistleblower case that was filed.

Scott’s team had asked for sanctions, which were not granted at this time, but they consider today a big win.  

At one point during the hearing, the Judge asked the City’s attorney, “If Asst. Chief Scott had delivered the statements via a postal courier, would you then consider that he no longer reported them?”  Reportedly, the City’s attorney said,  “Well, I know it sounds odd, but yes.” The City could not present any valid case law and even admitted to the court that they could not find any case law to support this particular incident.

Shortly after, the Judge ruled that all 3 forms of ‘reporting to law enforcement’ were, in fact, acceptable and held merit for trial.  At that time, they dismissed the City’s Plea to the Jurisdiction. 

We do expect an appeal from the City’s attorney.  OurCelina has reached out to the City Manager as well as the City Attorney for a statement after today’s hearing.  At this time, they have not responded.  If a response is received, we will update this post with the response at that time.