Fired YSU employee settles lawsuit for more than $600,000
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - After more than five years of litigation, Youngstown State University Trustees have agreed to settle with a fired employee for a six figure amount.
A December 16 agreement obtained by 21 News says that YSU has agreed to issue Ivan Maldonado a check in the amount of $613,974.32, minus taxes and the amount Maldonado would owe to the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System if he had been employed for the past five years. The amount includes estimated benefits and overtime.
Ivan Maldonado was president of the Association of Classified Employees when the university fired him in 2009 after two university employees alleged that he had made threatening and obscene comments to them.
Maldonado was first placed on leave, then terminated from his position in the YSU payroll department.
A 54-page finding from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service filed in July found that while the university had viable concerns about Maldonado's behavior and job performance, the arbitrator also concluded that the university had failed to establish that there was just cause for firing Maldonado, and that his misconduct was was not serious enough to warrant his termination.
The arbitrator ordered that Maldonado be returned to work immediately. But the university challenged the decision in Mahoning County Common Pleas court.
A statement from the university notes that the settlement amount is equal to his back pay and lost benefits to the time he was terminated. Maldonado will not receive anything more than if he was not terminated.
As part of the settlement, Maldonado agrees that he will not return to work and will not be employed by YSU now or in the future.
The university statement says, “After more than five years of hearings, rulings and litigation, we just believe that it is in the best interest of all parties to enter into this agreement, to resolve all remaining issues and to move forward.”
The settlement also specifies that YSU admits to no wrongdoing in the matter.
At one point, sixteen criminal charges were filed against Maldonado that included falsification, grand theft, tampering with records and theft in office.
Maldonado had been accused of using his position at the university to help employees receive pension benefits they were not entitled to, and passing off his nephew as a dependent, so he could attend YSU without paying tuition.
Those charges were thrown out by a judge.
