A Waco firefighter who lost his job in part over his ties to the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Club is fighting to be reinstated, saying he was unjustly terminated four years ago.
Bill Dudley, a 13-year veteran with the Waco Fire Department, testified in an all-day hearing Tuesday in a third-party arbitration review of his termination in October 2015.
Dudley was arrested during a traffic stop in Tarrant County on May 12, 2015 and charged with unlawfully carrying an unconcealed weapon in his truck. Crowley police ran a safety check on Dudley and found that the Texas Department of Public Safety flagged him as a member of the Bandidos, which DPS classifies as a “criminal street gang.”
The arrest occurred five days before a deadly shootout at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco between the Bandidos and rival Cossacks motorcycle club.
“It is my opinion that they used the Twin Peaks (incident) to fire me,” Dudley said in the hearing. “I believe they used things outside the statute for punishment. I did not do anything in that traffic stop that showed poor moral character. I did everything the officers asked me.”
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Dudley, 37, said he was a former member of a support club for the Bandidos and wanted to start a new chapter of the Bandidos near his home in Burleson. He said he was considered a Bandidos recruit for several months, but he left active membership in the clubs after he was injured in a Fort Worth bar shootout involving Bandidos in 2014.
Waco fire Lt. Philip Burnett, president of the Waco Professional Firefighters Association Local 478, sat with Dudley in support during Tuesday’s hearing. He said he is a friend of Dudley and said he would have no hesitation serving with Dudley on any call for service with the department.
“The Texas State Association of Firefighters and the Waco Professional Association of Firefighters want to make sure that firefighter Bill Dudley receives all he is entitled to under our Civil Service rights as firefighters pursuant to the Texas local government code,” Burnett said.
Arbitrator Thomas Cipolla with American Arbitrator Association oversaw the hearing and heard testimony from city staff, Crowley police, and current Waco firefighters and friends. Attorneys Lu Phan and Antonio Allen represented the city while state-level union representative Rafael Torres represented Dudley during the hearing.
The daylong hearing ended with no action Tuesday evening. Cipolla said attorneys will have the option to submit briefs and allow Cipolla to review the case before he issues a decision to uphold the termination, reduce the disciplinary or dismiss Dudley’s claim.
“Today the city presented the facts and findings from the original investigation to the arbitrator,” Waco Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Vranich said. “We now will have to wait for the arbitrator to make his decision.”
The city presented its claims that Dudley was fired for the Crowley arrest, as well as not obeying rules and regulations; being absent from work without good reason; failing to notify the department within 24 hours of his arrest; using poor judgment that reflects negatively toward the fire department and the city; and demonstrating poor moral character by associating with and/or being a member of a known criminal street gang.
Torres said Dudley was not a member of the motorcycle club, and the city did not have the legal right to terminate him. Torres said the city denied Dudley’s due process rights and relied on circumstances outside the scope of a 180-day Civil Service review for disciplinary action.
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Those testifying for the city included Vranich, who served as acting fire chief Tuesday, as well as former Waco Fire Chief John Johnston and Crowley police officers. Johnston indefinitely suspended Dudley in October 2015 following a three-month internal affairs review Vranich conducted.
“He would have flown under the radar,” Johnston said.
Torres claimed the Twin Peaks shootout, which left nine dead and nearly two dozen injured, heightened the department’s disciplinary response toward Dudley.
Dudley pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in 2017 and received deferred adjudication for 24 months in Tarrant County. The plea deal required him to plead guilty to the charge.
The hearing ended late Tuesday afternoon no action. Cipolla said he will likely review the case and briefs submitted by attorneys before coming to his decision in the next few months.
![THE MOST FEARED OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE CLUB [THE MONGOLS]](https://harleyliberty.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/d13535b5d174dd4e62fe9bc44777da60.jpg?w=1024)
INSANE THROTTLE 
7 responses to “A Waco firefighter who lost his job in part over his ties to the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Club is fighting to be reinstated saying he was unjustly terminated .”
I thought in texas it was legal to carry a weapon in car. chl or not
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You have got to be kidding right? You mean the state of Texas is trying to be self-righteous? You allow the Ku Klux Klan to infiltrate that state and commit all kinds of hatred and hateful crimes but you want to stop this brother from gainful employment because he belongs to a motorcycle club? Motorcycle clubs are nothing but brotherhood some may engage in criminal activity what what organization doesn’t? All you have to do to see criminal activity is look among most of the Texas police departments and you can see it all day long give this brother back his job he has the right to be involved in any organization and shouldn’t be discriminated against because of it I myself am a biker and I have never had that problem
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If I’m not mistaken a group of so called Outlaws made it legal for me and the rest of my countryman to carry a weapon way back in 1776…with no expiration date! The only law that was broken was having that right stolen just so it could be sold back to us with a fee and stipulations.
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I hope you dont get reienstated you stupid worthless punk
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K. Holmes- it is legal to carry a weapon in your vehicle in Texas regardless of CHL, it’s called the “Travel Law”, cross three county’s.
But, LE has abused it for years, confiscate your weapon and have to go to court to get it back, it’s a $ Game LE plays. LE are POS.
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SYLB
ACAB
….. and they wonder why nobody likes’em.
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Reinstate this man now. Police are the lowest of all so called “gangs”. Taking this guys livlihood for being an associate of the Bandidos is complete BULLSHIT!
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