Clay County dispatcher faces discipline, accused of not giving CPR instructions

An Action News Jax Investigation has uncovered the most senior emergency dispatcher in Clay County is facing discipline.

It's the latest in a string of disciplinary investigations into Clay County Fire Rescue employees that Action News Jax has exposed over the past few months.

County documents say Communications Specialist Ricky McCall failed to provide CPR instructions for a patient, who later died.

Internal investigation records also say McCall brought a gun to the workplace, which is against policy.

The public records were not easy to get.

Action News Jax sent 12 emails to the county over the past two-and-a-half months to get the documents.

Clay County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief David Motes recommended the county suspend McCall for five days.

The county manager has not yet made a final decision on that disciplinary recommendation.

“... in several cases CS McCall failed to follow Emergency Medical Dispatching procedures, failed to provide appropriate notes within calls, and in one case he appeared to levy his own conjecture and withheld providing CPR instructions where they were clearly appropriate. These acts established a founded conclusion of neglect of duty and a clear failure to follow policy,” said Motes in his letter to Chief Lorin Mock.

The internal investigation file Action News Jax got from Clay County Human Resources includes notes about the call in which McCall reportedly failed to provide CPR instructions.

Those notes say the patient “was called S7,” meaning the patient died.

The internal investigation also found McCall reportedly brought a weapon inside the communications center and, on one occasion, showed it to another employee.

McCall has seven other incidents in his disciplinary history, including violating the sexual harassment policy in 2007 and failure to follow a dispatching policy in 2014.

Action News Jax asked Chief Mock if people should feel safe with McCall on the job.

“If we didn’t think that, we would have removed him immediately,” said Mock.

McCall was one of four Clay County Fire employees under investigation for separate issues this fall.

Action News Jax reported in September that Clay County Fire Battalion Chief Raleigh Zike was fired after sending a shirtless photo to a female subordinate.

Zike was also investigated in 2015 for using his lights and sirens to stop a school bus and accuse a student of flashing his wife.

In 2016, Clay County Fire Rescue Lt. Anthony Myrick resigned after the Fire Department began investigating a nude selfie taken in a fire station bathroom.

Earlier that year, Clay County firefighter James Padgett resigned after he was charged with selling heroin.

In 2015, Clay County firefighters Joseph Lancaster and Aubrey Raisor resigned after reportedly having sex in a firehouse while on duty.

Cox Media Group