An Indiana state trooper was fired for preaching to a driver he had stopped for speeding -- but he's not sorry.
Brian Hamilton was terminated Thursday after a second woman sued him for asking which church she attended and then asking whether she had been saved, reported WXIN-TV.
The woman filed a complaint shortly after the traffic stop in January, which launched an internal affairs investigation by Indiana State Police, and the ACLU filed a lawsuit Tuesday on her behalf.
The 40-year-old Hamilton was sued over a similar traffic stop in September 2014, and he received a written warning against preaching while on duty when that civil rights case was settled.
ISP said Hamilton was fired for violating the written warning, and a spokesman said the timing of the termination and the second lawsuit were coincidental.
"(Thursday's) termination of Hamilton’s employment with the state police was the result of a thorough internal investigation and would have occurred regardless of any legal action initiated by the (ACLU) against Mr. Hamilton,” said Capt. David Bursten, a spokesman for ISP.
Both women stopped and questioned about their religion by Hamilton said they felt uncomfortable because he was a uniformed law enforcement officer, and civil rights attorneys say the questions were clear violations of the First and Fourth Amendments.
Hamilton said he was not sorry that he had lost his job for expressing his religious beliefs while on duty.
Oh well," Hamilton told the TV station. "I’m just following what the Lord told me to do, and you can’t change what the Lord tells you to do. So if the Lord tells me to speak about Jesus Christ, I do -- and that’s why they fired me, so that’s where we’re at."
Hamilton had worked as a state trooper since December 2001.
Watch this video report posted online by WRTV-TV:
