Times Staff Report

HAMMOND | A sex offender who was hired on with the city's Sanitation Department was fired two days after Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. went public with the case on his re-election Web site.

City Attorney Kris Kantar confirmed the firing, which occurred March 23.

"The sex offender was terminated in writing for providing incorrect information on his application," Kantar said.

A poster on the mayor's discussion board had brought up the issue in the late afternoon of March 20, asking McDermott if the worker was riding trucks in the neighborhoods or alleys, whether the city could be liable in the event of another sex offense and if the city hired sex offenders at all.