Fired Atlanta city worker gets his job back

ATLANTA — Sixty-year-old Oscar Dawson worked for the Atlanta Public Works Department for 15 years.

Last March, he was handcuffed and led away to a police squad car, accused of stealing copper from his facility.

Channel 2 Action News was there with exclusive video of the arrest.

At the time, Dawson told Channel 2's Dave Huddleston he was innocent of the charges.

Now it turns out he may have been telling the truth.

Channel 2 Action News obtained internal Atlanta civil service board memos that show Dawson, who has worked for Public Works for 15 years, was cleared of any wrongdoing in December, but he's been fighting for two months to get his job back.

Fighting back tears, Dawson said, "It hurts. I've never even been written up, now I'm accused of theft. I have a house, a mortgage, a wife; it hurts. And now they don't want to reinstate me to my job."

Huddleston started calling Tuesday morning and emailing city officials to find out why Dawson had not received a reinstatement and back pay.

Dawson's attorney, Keisha Steeg, filed a lawsuit demanding Dawson be reinstated, and late Tuesday afternoon we got word city officials called Dawson to tell him a check for back pay will be issued on Friday and he is to report to work on Monday.

But he says the sting of being handcuffed and it airing on television still hurts. He says, "It's like they don't care. And I didn't do anything wrong."

We tried to talk to city officials about this case, but they told us they don't comment on personnel matters.

WSBTV