Court: City of Miami, fire chief shielded in defamation case involving Black firefighter

MIAMI - An appeals court Wednesday said the City of Miami and Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban are shielded from defamation allegations in a lawsuit stemming from a 2017 incident in which a Black firefighter's family photos were defaced and a string shaped like a noose was placed over one of the photos. 

Firefighters David Rivera, Kevin Meizoso, and Justin Rumbaugh filed the lawsuit over comments that Zahralban made in a news release and news conference that implicated them in placing the noose over the photo, according to Wednesday's ruling by a panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal. 

The firefighters said they were not involved in the noose incident and alleged in the lawsuit that Zahralban's statements falsely portrayed them as "racists who were responsible for placing the noose over the defaced photos, causing them irreparable harm," the ruling said. 

After being terminated from their jobs, the firefighters went to arbitration and were reinstated. 

A Miami-Dade County circuit judge declined to dismiss the defamation allegations, but the appeals court said the city and Zahralban were entitled to legal immunity. 

"Chief Zahralban and the city are absolutely immune from suit for Chief Zahralban's written and oral statements relating to the city's termination of the respondents (the firefighters) as the statements were made within the scope of Chief Zahralban's duties as the director of the city's fire-rescue department," said the ruling, written by Judge Eric Hendon and joined by Judges Edwin Scales and Bronwyn Miller.