"Pharmacist sues Department of Correctional Services over firing," is by Nicholas Bergin from the Lincoln Journal Star.
A former pharmacy director for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services is suing her old employer and boss, alleging she was fired after taking medical leave, reporting security breaches by her superiors and refusing to order a lethal injection drug from a non-FDA approved source.
In the suit, Dianne Booker says her October 2011 termination and an earlier demotion violated both her civil rights and the Family Medical Leave Act.
The Nebraska Attorney General's office filed a response to the suit Wednesday, denying all of the allegations except a few basic facts, including that she worked as a pharmacist for the Corrections Department from October 2008 to October 2011.
Department spokeswoman Dawn Renee Smith confirmed Booker was acting pharmacy director for a time under the supervision of Steve Urosevich, chief operating officer for the Health and Human Services division of the Corrections Department. Smith declined to comment on the suit.
Filed early last month, the lawsuit says Booker was told in fall 2010 to obtain "by any means" a supply of sodium pentothal, a brand name for the drug sodium thiopental.
State legislators made lethal injection Nebraska's method of execution in May 2009 as a way around a 2008 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that declared electrocution cruel and unusual punishment.
"Ex-pharmacy director sues Neb. Corrections Dept.," is the AP filing, via the Beatrice Daily Sun.
A lawsuit by a former pharmacy director for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says she was fired, in part, for refusing to order a lethal injection drug from a source not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The lawsuit is the latest dust-up over the state's attempts to secure sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used in Nebraska's lethal injection procedure.
And:
Booker's lawsuit says the Correctional Services Department ordered her to obtain "by any means" a supply of the drug in the fall of 2010. When she refused, the lawsuit says, her supervisor took over the search. Several months later, she was demoted after taking medical leave, and she was fired in October after having earlier reported security breaches by her superiors, according to her lawsuit. Booker said her firing violated both her civil rights and the Family Medical Leave Act.
The Nebraska Attorney General's office filed a response to the lawsuit on Wednesday, denying all of Booker's allegations and saying she failed to give timely notice of her absence, which it says was not protected by the Family Medical Leave Act.
Booker's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, back pay and her job back, or reimbursement for future wages.
Earlier coverage of Nebraska lethal injection issues begins at the link.
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