Junkie high school teacher who brought heroin to court loses appeal
A Brooklyn teacher who was fired after accidentally bringing 20 bags of heroin to court in his backpack should be permanently barred from the classroom, a judicial appeals panel ruled Tuesday.
Junkie teacher Damian Esteban tried to sue his way back into a job and even convinced a lower court judge in 2013 that he was unfairly ousted from his position at the Williamsburg HS for Architecture and Design.
Esteban was busted for the dopey move during a routine security check while he was serving on a jury in a Manhattan criminal court in 2012.
He claimed to be a recovering addict who’d forgotten that he was carrying the glassine containers of heroin.
He was never reinstated as the city appealed Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Manuel Mendez’s decision, arguing that Esteban had turned the school system into a national laughingstock.
The five-judge Manhattan appeals panel sided with the city saying it was “not irrational or against public policy” to can Esteban for “public possession of heroin.”
A city spokesman hailed the appeal ruling.
“We’re gratified with the court’s decision. This individual has no business being in a classroom,” the spokesman said.
Esteban’s lawyer said his client “is considering his appeal options at this time.”
He can still ask the state’s highest judicial authority, the Court of Appeals, to hear his case.
“The Appellate Division’s decision is an unfortunate departure from the firmly-rooted legal authority upon which Justice Mendez based his opinion that termination was too harsh a penalty,” Esteban’s lawyer, Benjamin Dictor, said.
“It remains undisputed — as the Supreme Court properly noted — that Mr. Esteban’s record as a teacher was ‘outstanding,'” Dictor added.
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