Former Colton police chief sues city

Former Colton police chief Kenneth Rulon sued the city of Colton for wrongful termination, defamation, retaliation, and emotional distress. He seeks $10 million. Rulon held the job for nearly 4 years and is 43 years old. See this article for more information. The IE LB's purpose is to point out interesting items of the law in our fair Inland Empire. It used to be that if you're Boss was a jerk or if you were treated unfairly you took your lumps and accepted the harsh reality of life. Now, if you are treated unfairly you sue. In this case, Rulon is suing the city of Colton. But who exactly is the city of Colton? It is 47,000 taxpayers. Rulon wants these citizens to pay him $10 million.

Most cities in California are dependent for revenue on sales tax. The vast majority of the sales tax go to the state and counties but the city in which the sale transaction took place does get a small cut of the sales tax. The reality is that cities are typically starved for revenue. Yet Mr. Rulon, because he feels he was treated unfairly, wants the city to either cut services or raise taxes to compensate him for the mistreatment. Assuming for the sake of argument that Mr. Rulon was treated unfairly what is the law to do? Deprive him of a legal remedy? The citizens of this state have decided that Mr. Rulon will have his day in court. The jury will decide if Mr. Rulon's rights were violated and if so how much will he get. If the jury awards Mr. Rulon money it will be Colton's citizens who are deprived of services or their hard-earned money. As such, it will have been the citizens of the state who created the law on which the lawsuit was brought and it will have been the jury of San Bernardino County citizens who gave Mr. Rulon the award. although the vast majority of Colton citizens had nothing to do with Mr. Rulon's mistreatment, they will ultimately be the ones who have to pay for the mistreatment.

A final thought on this is that the city of Colton's attorney is probably going to bill somewhere north of $100,000 for the city's defense.