18/07/2026
Largo Firefighter Brandon Stoffel returns to work with partial back pay.
A case for Yellow Journalism - reporting that distorts facts for attention.
Mob Justice. Trial by Social Media. Cancel Culture. Court of Public Opinion.
Story by Greg Gardner. Candidate for commission seat 1.
Brandon Stoffel was terminated by Largo officials for attending a No Kings protest in downtown Tampa on June 14, 2025. The crime? Publicly said, “Certified Fa*got” (admitted).
The city says, “the crime is deeply offensive, derogatory and inexcusable.”
The City argues this is not a First Amendment issue, but whether the City may hold its employees, particularly public-safety personnel, to standards of conduct that preserve public trust expected by the community it serves. The city claims the law is clear that public employees do not have an unfettered right to engage in speech or conduct that undermines the city’s mission or may damage its reputation. The city takes the moral high ground and claims all city employees must serve all members of the public with impartiality and professionalism.
The city claims the fact that crime occurred in public and that Stoffel was identified as a City firefighter transformed his conduct into a workplace issue, regardless of the setting in which it occurred.
The city contends that the charged atmosphere (agitators) of the protest neither excuses nor contextualizes the slur; that the incompleteness of the video and the subsequent handshake are immaterial, because the discipline rested on what the public saw (fake news) rather than on what occurred after the recording stopped.
Stoffel’s attorney, Anthony F. Sabatini, argued that just cause requires more than public controversy: it requires substantial evidence, a fair and complete investigation, consistent discipline, and a penalty proportionate to the proven conduct. Attorney Sabatini asserts that the City failed to satisfy each of these requirements.
Sabatini asserts the city failed on three counts.
1) the investigation was neither full nor fair. The City never examined the context of the exchange before imposing discipline and skipping arbitration procedure #2.
2) No meaningful workplace nexus was established. Stoffel acted as a private citizen, off duty and away from Largo.
3) The penalty was arbitrary, disparate, and excessive, inconsistent with the City's treatment of comparable conduct and disproportionate to the offense proven, therefore defeating just cause.
Sabatini asserts that the record discloses no violence, no threats, no workplace harassment, no refusal of service, no impairment of emergency services, no misuse of public authority, and no inability on his part to perform his duties. Furthermore, the investigation was fatally incomplete.
The city’s lead investigator admitted that the City conducted no inquiry into what was occurring at the moment of the exchange, the investigation examined none of the surrounding circumstances, relying instead on the complainant's email and the submitted videos. The investigation never examined what occurred before the recording began, never determined who first used the term, never determined whether Stoffel was repeating language already in use, and never determined whether the encounter ended peacefully.
Perhaps the hardest blow to the city was violating the arbitrary and capricious rule of law. "Arbitrary and capricious" is a legal standard used to evaluate whether an official decision, particularly by a government agency, is reasonable. A decision fails this test and can be overturned if it lacks a rational basis, ignores relevant facts, or amounts to a clear error of judgment. In a similar situation using Firefighter Myers as a comparator who used the “N word” on duty, the city merely reprimanded Myers and received only counseling and diversity training.
Final Opine by Michael A. Lendino, the Impartial Arbitrator: Brandon Stoffel became involved in an incident with an unnamed person and uttered the challenged term which is universally accepted as offensive. None of the assertions by No Kings activist Krystle Paulsen were sustained. Division Chief Emmet Sands testified that these statements were “rumor and speculation” that the City “couldn’t verify,” and that there was “no finding whatsoever” as to them.
Chief Emmet Sands agreed that the discipline rested upon “a one-time singular use of one phrase,” and that “all the other stuff was noise essentially,” and that the recorded statement, together with Stopple admission, “was the crux of the actions.”
The person who created the video did not testify and, when contacted, “would not provide their information.” Further, the unknown individual to whom the remark was addressed, the one person whose dignity the City’s policies are meant to protect, did not testify.
Brandon Stoffel stated that the unnamed man agitator who initiated the incident by referring to himself as a proud, “certified fa**ot,” and that the two men then spoke. They then shook hands and parted amicably.
Further evidence proved the video was altered to frame Brandon Stoffel. What the public saw, to which there was a response, was a fragment of the incident. Stoffel uttered a pejorative word in public which was caught on camera and viewed on social media and the local television news, albeit without all the facts.
Arbitrator Lendino stated, “I am not persuaded that the mere utterance of the word, without more, is sufficient to establish the misconduct charged or to justify the penalty imposed.”
“A person who shakes hands with another whom he has just addressed, and parts on amicable terms, does not display the bigoted intent that the City’s theory of harassment and hostility requires.”
“I am convinced that public and media pressure, rather than the consistent application of the City’s disciplinary standards, influenced the City’s disciplinary determination. A penalty driven by the volume of public reaction, rather than by the proven gravity of the conduct measured against the employer’s own practice, is not the product of the good-faith and legitimate exercise of managerial judgment that just cause requires.”
It is necessary to note the constitutional dimension the parties addressed. Sabatini invoked Pickering v. Board of Education and its successors for the principle that public employees do not wholly surrender their rights as citizens to speak on matters of public concern.
Brandon Stoffel was awarded back pay, less 6 months as a disciplinary penalty. Stoffel must attend sensitivity and diversity training. Stoffel is to return with seniority and all contractual and employment rights restored. The city of Largo shall pay all legal fees amounting to $7,200.00.
The incident goes beyond Divisional Fire Chief Emmet Sands and former Fire Chief Chad Pittman. The ultimate finger points at Largo’s DEI queen Maggie Paluch who’s haunted past from the City of Alamogordo, New Mexico plagues the City of Largo today.
Alamogordo had enough of Paluch departmental anguish that created hostilities withing the police department and terminated her employment.
Maggie Paluch was the final decision maker to not install a flagpole at the new city hall. A clear violation of Florida statute 256.11 requires flagpoles at public assembly buildings, both inside and out.
Maggie Paluch was the final decision maker to remove all urinals at the city’s new Horizon city hall. A projection of her own DEI agenda.
Is it time for the Largo commission to considered a vote to revoke Paluch's contract?
