ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 St. Lucie County Fire District Attorney Kim Sabol is leaving the department, submitting her 90-day notice Wednesday as the agency faces an ongoing fight with its firefighters’ union over the termination of three employees accused of hazing rookies.<\/p>\n
Sabol confirmed she submitted her notice Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether her departure is connected to the ongoing dispute.<\/p>\n
“I’m retiring. My employment agreement requires 90 days’ notice because it’s a 3-year contract,” Sabol told CBS12. “My last work day will be 12\/31\/2026.”<\/p>\n
Sabol has served as the district’s attorney since 2017, advising the Fire Board, fire chief and administration on legal matters including labor and employment issues and collective bargaining.<\/p>\n
Her departure comes as Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of St. Lucie County Local 1377<\/a> fights the discipline of five firefighters.<\/p>\n The union has formally demanded arbitration for three terminated firefighters and two suspended personnel, arguing there was no just cause for the discipline.<\/p>\n See also: Beyond the dashcam: FHP begins equipping troopers with body cameras<\/a><\/p>\n The firefighters were disciplined after an outside investigation into videos showing senior personnel using a modified bug zapper to administer electric shocks to newer firefighters in incidents in March and September 2024.<\/p>\n Fire District officials called the conduct hazing and said it violated department policies and created a culture of intimidation between senior and junior employees.<\/p>\n The union disagrees.<\/p>\n According to previous reports<\/a>, Local 1377 President Ryan Sapp said the incidents amounted to consensual station horseplay, pointing to an earlier Fort Pierce Police Department<\/a> investigation that found no criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n “There was no violence. There was no kind of hazing whatsoever, and I could not believe that that’s what was found,” Sapp told CBS12.<\/p>\n The union has also challenged the fairness of the Fire District’s investigation, which was conducted by outside attorney John “J.K.” Keller IV.<\/p>\n Sapp said union attorneys believe the investigation was not impartial and that some questions appeared to be designed to reach a predetermined conclusion.<\/p>\n The union also raised concerns that the law firm involved in the investigation has since been retained by the district for the upcoming arbitration.<\/p>\n Two terminated firefighters, Jordon Hutchinson and Christopher Baldwin, have separately alleged whistleblower retaliation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe St. Lucie County Fire District received a 90-day notice of a resignation from its legal counsel today. The District Attorney is eligible for retirement, and the notice provides for continued service during the 90-day period,” St. Lucie County Fire Rescue said in a statement. “The District will not speculate regarding the circumstances surrounding the resignation or any connection to other matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Sapp said the union remains willing to negotiate a resolution that could avoid arbitration, but any compromise would need to include reinstatement of the terminated firefighters.<\/p>\n Sabol’s 90-day notice means she is expected to remain with the district during that period unless the terms of her departure change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 St. Lucie County Fire District Attorney Kim Sabol is leaving the department,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-415667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}