A Hollywood visual effects specialist who was fired from his job after reporting a co-worker’s cocaine habit has won a wrongful termination case in the amount of $450,000. Andrew MacDonald sued his employers, special effects firm Ascent Media Group (AMG), in September 2010 for wrongful termination. After catching his co-worker doing coke in the company restroom in 2009, he had reported his co-worker’s “open and notorious drug abuse at the office during working hours” to his bosses, who demanded proof. MacDonald “jokingly” asked if he would have to resort to video-taping the man inhaling lines of blow; he was fired the next day for “lying” and for trying to film someone in the bathroom. Los Angeles jurors decided on Wednesday that AMG had fired him in “malice,” resulting in MacDonald losing health benefits for his pregnant wife, awarding him two years’ worth of salary for wrongful termination. The cocaine-using co-worker has since left AMG.
