Former Employee Set To Sue Goodyear

A former Goodyear employee has put the city on notice that she intends to file a $1.2 million dollar wrongful termination suit. Terri Woodmansee worked as a victim advocate for the Goodyear Police Department for 9 years. She was fired last August for what she says was blowing the whistle on a Goodyear police officer she believes was responsible for the hit and run death of Jered Pendleton of Avondale.

City officials said Woodmansee was let go for spreading rumors, releasing confidential information and then lying about it during an administrative investigation.Last year, police found Pendleton, 18, lying dead in the middle of a Goodyear road. The fatal hit and run has never been solved.

Investigators did look into the possibility that a Goodyear police office driving a patrol car may have had some connection to the accident. Detectives took blood samples from the patrol car and submitted them to the Department of Public Safety lab for DNA testing. Expert accident investigators from Tempe Police were also brought in to assist. The city's report shows the officer may have driven through the accident scene and struck a shoe but no evidence was found that the officer's car hit Pendleton. Woodmansee was overheard telling colleagues that she thought the city has orchestrated a huge cover-up.

That sparked an investigation in which Woodmansee denied every making those statements. In a claim letter to the city, Woodmansee's lawyer says her client reported her suspicions to a member of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and an FBI agent. The Goodyear police officer in question has been with the department since November of 2006. Prior to that, he was an Avondale police officer for 10 months. He was fired from Avondale for unsafe driving.