Firefighter files civil rights suit after being sued for discrimination

An Attleboro firefighter filed a 33-page federal complaint this month alleging a conspiracy by his co-workers to falsely accuse him of discrimination. The firefighter, Dennis Perkins, had been the subject of a complaint at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination brought by a black firefighter, Vincent Bailey, alleging racial discrimination. That complaint settled last year when the City of Attleboro paid Bailey $25,000 after the MCAD issued a finding of probable cause on Bailey's complaint of discrimination. The new federal complaint by Perkins names several members of the Fire Department as defendants, including former Chief Ronald Churchill, and alleges that these defendants conspired together to retaliate against and defame Perkins because he refused to support Churchill's bid to continue on as Fire Chief past his statutory retirement date.