Fired EMS medics cleared of wrongdoing, awarded $622K
SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Two former Sun Prairie Emergency Medical Services medics have been awarded more than a half-million dollars after being cleared of any wrongdoing.
Paramedics John Uebelacker and Matthew Schaller were fired in February 2014, but in 2015 state EMS officials found no fault in the care they had provided while on duty.
An arbitrator ruled the Sun Prairie EMS investigation was faulty and biased, and that the paramedics should be hired back and compensated for salary lost.
The city council will now have to decide whether it wants to continue funding the lawsuit.
“You add in the $622,000 arbitration award, and you add in all the costs of the investigations, the back pay, the suspensions of the investigations and you’re rapidly approaching a $1 million taxpayer cost for the city of Sun Prairie to refuse to follow a judge’s order,” said Ted Higgins, with the EMS medics’ union Firefighters Local 311.
Schaller and Uebelacker currently work as paramedics for Divine Savior Healthcare.
City administrator Aaron Oppenheimer said alders will meet Tuesday with staff and legal counsel to discuss the arbitrator’s award.
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