PHOENIX (AP) - Appellate judges will hear arguments Oct. 20 in an appeal by five former state child welfare employees who contend they were wrongly fired in 2014 amid an agency scandal.
A three-judge Court of Appeals panel will hear the appeal at Shadow Mountain High School in north Phoenix.
The five are appealing a Maricopa County Superior Court’s 2015 dismissal of their wrongful termination lawsuit.
Child Protective Services, then part of the Department of Economic Security, was rocked by the 2013 discovery that thousands of hotline calls were labeled as not worthy of being investigated.
The ex-CPS employees argued they were fired to provide political cover to then-Gov. Jan Brewer and then-DES Director Clarence Carter.
The state argued that the five were at-will employees and could be fired at any time.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.