PHILADELPHIA — A police officer is suing Salisbury Township, citing an alleged violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act .
Budd Frankenfield filed a complaint July 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging that the township took away his promotion and demoted him.
According to the complaint, between August 2017 and Dec. 28, 2017, the plaintiff was promoted to the position of corporal on a one-year probationary basis. In the summer of 2017, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve.
When he told his supervisor that he was planning to enlist, Frankenfield alleges that he was discouraged from enlisting, and the police chief told him "this will affect your probation" and that the reserve duty would interfere with his availability for the job the chief wanted him to do.
When he did not withdraw his enlistment, the plaintiff claims he was not promoted by the township, and his pay and benefits were reduced.
The plaintiff seeks an award all of damages allowed under federal law, including compensation for actual monetary losses, future monetary losses and mental anguish and inconvenience, as well as interest, attorney's fees and injunctive relief. He is represented by Neil Durkin of Neil Durkin Law Office LLC in Cherry Hill.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number 5:18-cv-03069-JFL