A millennial attorney in Florida has accused his pro-Trump boss of firing him for wearing a Black Lives Matter tie to court and office and complaining on social media about the firm’s conservative leanings.
Alton Edmond, 27, a resident in Florida, worked as an assistant public defender and handled misdemeanor cases at the Brevard County’s public defender’s office. He was escorted from the office by two armed investigators on Wednesday.
The young attorney claims he was fired for sporting a Black Lives Matter tie to a courtroom and pointing out the overtly conservative and pro-Trump bias in his office. He recalls a situation when a secretary in the office saw the tie and told him, “No, all lives matter.”
“I think this situation has made it clear to me that there is some intolerance in the public defender’s office. People in the office are overly sensitive, very conservative and talked openly about their support of (President) Trump. Even the public defender, he was at a Trump rally last year, in the front row,” he told Florida Today.
Edmond claims he had worn the tie several times and believes it’s his First Amendment right to wear it. “This was my way of representing a struggle. It’s very personal to me,” he said.
According to Public Defender Blaise Trettis, however, he did express his concern with the tie, but other issues played a role in the firing of Edmond. “It is accurate to say he was fired. But it was an accumulation of things … the tie had no significance in his firing.”
He claims the millennial attorney recorded his colleagues talking about politics and posted it on Facebook. He also once left behind a loaded gun on the desk in his office before he went to court.
The Public Defender also dismissed criticism that his office was intolerant. “I’ve actually hired more minorities than the other firms,” he said.
Trettis admitted he attended a rally in support of Donald Trump back in September. “I did go, but if that’s a criticism, it’s absurd. The big difference is that what I did was not during work hours or at a work place. Whatever he wants to do in his own time, that’s his business. It’s not right for an attorney to be wearing that in the courthouse.”
The last straw which prompted the firing was Edmond’s social media posts about him. “He was posting on Facebook during working hours and the posts were about me. When you’re at work, criticizing your boss, that’s not a good thing.”
Edmond refutes the allegations and insists his social media posts weren’t made during his work hours. After his dismissal he’s focusing on opening a private practice. “I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was 5 years old,” he said.
