ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Two Former Orange County firefighters fought to get their jobs back Tuesday, but lost the battle. They were accused of making sexually explicit crank phone calls to their boss while she worked at a fire station.
"How would you characterize those calls? Immature?" WFTV reporter Steve Barrett asked ex-firefighter Anthony Devereaux.
"What?" Devereaux said.
Fired firefighter Anthony Devereaux rolled up his window and drove away when WFTV tried to ask about vulgar phone calls that got him fired. His alleged victim, Lt. Gina Yeager, sat in a crowded room where a grievance panel voted to uphold Devereaux's firing.
Also dismissed was Peter Grossmueller, who was heard in the background of the prank calls and allegedly lied during the investigation.
"My story hasn't changed since the beginning. I've never lied. I basically got fired for being at someone's house," Grossmueller said.
But the county and Division Chief Vince Preston saw things differently.
"We would make the same decision if it happened a thousand times, we'd fire a thousand people. We're not going to tolerate this," Preston said. "They made poor decisions and then they compounded the poor decisions by being dishonest throughout the process."
Most of what was described in the prank calls involved statements about paying money for phone sex, and the county believes the calls were made after a night of partying at Devereaux's Polk County home.
Tuesday, the final straw seemed to come when internal affairs investigators subpoenaed records proving the calls came from Devereaux's home. He had denied the phone number was his.
"That evidence seemed pretty strong that it was your phone number," reporter Steve Barrett said to Devereaux.
"I don't really want to talk about it. Not a good day right now, not a good time," Devereaux replied.
The firefighters still have one slim chance to keep their jobs in an arbitration hearing, however that decision could be more than a year away. In the meantime, they're not getting paid, nor getting unemployment.
Previous Stories: May 26, 2010: Firefighters Allegedly Made Dirty Calls To Boss