Brandon Coker and Michael Golden, two police officers who worked in the southern state’s Bossier parish, have been sacked by the US Supreme Court for swapping wives and families, in a case that raised eyebrows.
After consultation with their families, the men proceeded to simply swap homes — and wives: Golden moved in with Coker’s wife, and Coker made his life with Golden’s wife. Neither couple divorced.
In late October 2014, their employer, Chief Deputy Sheriff Charles Owens, was shocked to discover the divorce-less swap.
Owens told Coker and Golden that their actions violated the Sheriff’s Code of Conduct barring “illegal, immoral or indecent conduct” and placed them on administrative leave.
If they refused to return to their own homes until their divorces were final, they would be “considered to have terminated employment voluntarily,” according to court documents.
Coker and Golden paid heed to their hearts, ignored their boss — and soon filed a lawsuit for unlawful termination.
The men claimed that the Sheriff’s Code of Conduct violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression and “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
But both a district and an appeals court backed their employer.
“Sexual decisions between consenting adults take on a different colour when the adults are law enforcement officers,” the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling in May.
