City Council Staffer Case To Go to Trial

A jury may decide the merits of First Amendment claims brought by a former City Council staffer who was fired after saying a lawmaker who didn't vote with her boss might need an "assassination," a judge ruled yesterday.

A U.S. District judge of Manhattan, William Pauley, said the case brought by Viola Plummer could proceed on First Amendment grounds, although he tossed out most other grounds for the lawsuit.

Plummer was chief of staff to Councilman Charles Barron when she was fired by the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn.

Plummer filed a discrimination lawsuit after she was fired following comments at a council meeting last spring when it was considering naming a street after a militant black activist who some say is a community hero but others say is divisive and unworthy of the honor.

Plummer, who is black, hurled a threat at another black council member who abstained from voting, saying his aspiration for higher office was over even "if it meant assassinating his ass."

Afterward, she said the comment was about the lawmaker's career, not about his life.

Still, it upset some council members, occurring just a few years after Councilman James Davis was shot and killed by a political rival inside the chambers during a council meeting.