VOLUSIA EXPOSED.COM

County settles lawsuit with fire fighter. Apparently official court records indicate that the county spend nearly a million dollars on this lawsuit Now, it would appear that the county is admitting that they "misrepresented the truth" to the court on how much money they spent defending the case. Ironically, the fire fighter was fired for the allegation of "lying".

Updated November 26, 2010

"The tongue may be employed about, and made to serve all the purposes of vice, in tempting and deceiving, in perjury and injustice."- Joseph Butler



Mr. Vroman, a Volusia County fire fighter was fired under the allegation of "lying to his bosses". Mr. Vroman sued the county in 2006 stating that the real reason he was fired was because of his union involvement and being an outspoken critic of county government.

Mr. Vroman won this court case in March 2008, but the county appealed. Recently, (November 8, 2010) the county opted to settle the case. Official court records filed by the county, to the court, apparently supports that they spent over $600,000 of the taxpayer's money defending against the lawsuit. Now, with the settlement, the county (and the taxpayers) appear to be on the hook for nearly a million dollars. This nearly million dollar settlement includes, Mr. Vroman $44,425 judgement, Vroman's legal cost of $323,000 and finally the Volusia County alleged legal costs of $611,522.50.

VolusiaExposed.Com shall request these alleged records that support that Volusia County officials counter filed with the court a request to be awarded $611,522.50 (apparently $420,240 in March 2009 when the request was filed with the court) for legal cost should Vroman be unsuccessful in his lawsuit. If the records do exist, does that mean that Volusia County officals lied to the court in regards to their actual legal costs? Isn't lying to the court called perjury? It will be ironic, if the evidence suggests that the county lied to the court in support of a lawsuit filed by an employee that was fired for allegedly lying. Let's see what the records show. Until then, we invited you to read the two below media articles on this developing situation.(RECORDS HAVE BEEN OBTAINED AND ADDED TO THIS WEBPAGE) We leave it to you the reader to determine who was telling the truth and who was mis-representing the facts.

It is of interest that since the county has lost this suit, they now try to assure the Volusia County taxpayers that the county did not spend almost a million dollars in the defend and settlement of this lawsuit. Rather, as Deputy County Attorney Smith apparently stated to a local media outlet, that the county's filing for over $600,000 dollars worth of legal fee was a "tit-for-tat" response to Mr. Vroman's apparent request for approximately $278,000 in legal fees. How is it that apparently Mr. Smith believes that Mr. Vroman "overstated" his legal fees ($278,000), but Smith had no problems filing official court records attesting that Volusia County spent over $600,000 dollars?

Questions - If Mr. Vroman had in fact lied or "overstated" about his legal expenses, does that give the Deputy County Attorney license to do the same (tit-for-tat)? We believe it does not, what do you think?

Does the paperwork suggest that Vroman sued several Volusia County administrators (Tauber, Moore and Willits - as well as the Volusia County Government? Does it appear that Vroman was unsuccessful in obtaining a judgement against the three above named individuals, but did obtain a $44,000 judgement against the Volusia County Government? Did Smith attempt to negate any settlement amount that Vroman might be awarded against the Volusia County Government by requesting that the court award the county over $600,000 for the defense of these county administrators (Tauber, Moore and Willits)? Once again, we invited you to review the documents and draw your own conclusions.

Click here to read (video report included) - a local media outlet's account of this situation

Click here to read a local media outlet's account in which Volusia County official seem to state that they "overstated" their legal costs to the court.

Click here to read Volusia County Deputy Attorney Smith's legal motion for over $600,000 in legal fees

Click here to read the Vroman court judgement

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