Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, DISCRIMINATION—DISABILITY—E.D. Ky.: Firefighter who attempted suicide, sought medical marijuana accommodation cannot show discrimination, (May 6, 2026)

By Jason Albright, J.D.

He attempted suicide while on duty by ingesting “about 9 or 11” Adderall pills.

A fire marshal who suffered generalized anxiety, major depressive, and post-traumatic stress disorders, terminated after he attempted suicide by ingesting multiple Adderall pills while on duty, could not establish disability discrimination or failure to accommodate under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, a federal district court In Kentucky found. The city’s workplace drug and alcohol prohibitions included “misuse of legally prescribed drugs,” it fired him for “inefficiency, violating City policies, and for being unfit to be a Fire Marshal,” and he could not establish pretext. He also could not establish that his proposed accommodation of medical marijuana use was reasonable given “the heightened safety-sensitive nature of [his] position” (Wheeling v. City of Winchester, No. 5:24-CV-129-KKC (E.D. Ky. May 5, 2026)).

Firefighter. The employee is a firefighter. Although he is currently employed at the Clark County Fire Department, he worked as a firefighter for the City of Winchester from 2015 to 2023, during which time he rose through the ranks and was ultimately promoted to fire marshal.

Mental health issues. His mental health struggles “stem from a series of trauma and abuse dating back to his childhood years,” according to the court. He has been diagnosed with multiple mental health conditions: generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

First incident. In 2022, his mental health plummeted. The first reported incident happened on March 25, 2022, when he was at a high school event speaking to students. During the event, he started having intrusive thoughts and had to leave. From that point on, his mental health struggles continued to grow.

Treatment. Between June 22 and July 25, 2022, he sought in-patient treatment at the International Association of Fire Fighters Center for Excellence. He used FMLA leave for his time off from June through August, which was formally approved by the city.

Return to work. On August 8, 2022, he returned to work. After leaving the Center for Excellence, he began receiving psychiatric care at Bluegrass Behavioral Health and Consulting Services. His treatment plan included medication management and therapy. Though he was actively seeking treatment, his mental health continued to burden him.

FMLA leave. On October 10, 2022, he submitted a letter to the fire chief notifying him that he needed additional time off to address his mental health issues. He took FMLA leave again from October 10, 2022, until December 2, 2022, when his FMLA leave was exhausted. On December 1, 2022, his medical provider prepared a letter stating that he remained unable to return to work and needed additional time to undergo further treatment. During this time, his provider started a new treatment with him that was aimed at improving his treatment-resistant depression.

Provider letter and medical marijuana. Then, on January 19, 2023, his provider prepared a letter certifying that the firefighter was approved to return to work on January 23, 2023. The city, however, refused to clear him to return to work at that time because his treatment plan included the use of medical marijuana. Although the medical marijuana helped provide relief from his symptoms, he agreed to discontinue it immediately so that he could return to work.

Suicide attempt at work. He ultimately returned to work on March 14, 2023. Shortly after his return, he was prescribed Adderall, and on March 31, 2023, he attempted suicide while at work by taking multiple Adderall pills within a short period.

Notably, his attempted suicide took place one or two days after he began taking Adderall. He informed his manager of his attempted suicide, prompting the latter to confiscate the pills and notify the employee’s wife. His wife contacted poison control and took him to the hospital, where he was placed on suicide watch and released six hours later.

Briefly promoted. On April 4, 2023, without knowledge of his recent suicide attempt, the city’s Board of Commissioners promoted the employee. It was not until April 10, 2023, that the city was notified of the incident, and on that date, the fire chief sent a memorandum to the city manager detailing the employee’s suicide attempt and requesting that he be placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately.

Discharge. On May 1, 2023, the employee was presented with a letter stating that he was formally charged with inefficiency or violation of the rules adopted by the Board of Commissioners. Allegedly, when the city manager presented the letter to the employee, he told him that this was the “second occurrence,” and indicated that the first occurrence was the employee’s attendance at the Center for Excellence. On May 16, 2023, the Board of Commissioners voted to terminate his employment based on these charges.

Lawsuit and surviving claims. The employee sued, alleging FMLA retaliation, disability discrimination under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (KCRA), failure to accommodate under the KCRA, and workers’ compensation retaliation. The city moved for summary judgment against all claims, and in his response, the employee waived his FMLA and workers’ compensation claims.

Disability discrimination. The court first granted summary judgment against the disability discrimination claim. The city purportedly fired the employee for “inefficiency, violating City policies, and for being unfit to be a Fire Marshal.” Pursuant to the city’s Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy, prohibited drug use includes “misuse of legally prescribed drugs,” and the record reflected that the employee misused his prescribed Adderall medication when he ingested a large portion of pills in an attempt to commit suicide.

Nor could the employee establish pretext. He characterized his suicide attempt as an isolated incident tied to side effects from taking new medication and argued that a reasonable jury could find the city overreacted and should have accommodated him instead, but the court was not convinced. “The March 31 incident did not occur in isolation; rather, it followed an earlier March 2022 episode that [the firefighter] acknowledges affected his job performance and marked the beginning of a prolonged period of mental health deterioration.”

Failure to accommodate and medical marijuana. With respect to the employee’s proposed use of medical marijuana, the court also found that the accommodations he sought were not reasonable. The city’s denial of this first proposed accommodation, according to the court, was based on “the heightened safety-sensitive nature of [his] position and the lack of assurances that [he] could perform the job while using medical marijuana.” And indeed, his physician ultimately “seemingly conceded” that this requested accommodation was not reasonable by requesting an alternative accommodation—“scheduling flexibility”—which the city approved.

Additional personnel? The employee also requested “additional personnel to assist him in office,” and the court found that this proposed accommodation was likewise unreasonable. Here, the court observed, the written job requirements of his position, the undisputed testimony from the employee and his supervisors, and the duties inherent in being a first responder indicated that field inspections and fire prevention were essential to performing the fire marshal role, and the city was not required to reassign such fire inspection and prevention responsibilities to other employees.

The city’s motion for summary judgment was accordingly granted.

The case is No. 5:24-CV-129-KKC.

Judge: Caldwell, K.

Attorneys: Andrew Dutkanych, III (Biesecker, Dutkanych & Macer) for Joseph Wheeling. Erica Keenan Mack (Walther, Roark & Gay) for City of Winchester.

Companies: City of Winchester

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