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Name:
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lotowner
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Subject:
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Reverse Discrimination Lawsuit
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Date:
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4/16/2009 7:54:14 AM
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From the Chattanooga News Free Press on 4/16/09.
Hamilton County: Jury gives $300,000 to former UTC officer
By: Monica Mercer
A Hamilton County jury has awarded $300,000 to a white former UTC police officer who claims he was fired after complaining about reverse racism and a culture of protecting black employees that exists in the school’s police department.
According to testimony from the four-day trial in which Sean Shelton sought about $28,000 in back pay, the former officer said the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fired him in 2004 for complaining about a “hostile” work environment in which black colleagues and supervisors harassed him and accused him of being racist. At the same time, they called him derogatory names associated with white people such as “honky” and “redneck,” he said.
A Hamilton County jury found that former UTC police officer Sean Shelton was fired because he was white, was harassed because he was white and was retaliated against because of his complaints about the reverse discrimination. The jury awarded Mr. Shelton $300,000. Officials with the university, which is responsible for Mr. Shelton’s legal fees, have indicated they might appeal the decision.
“This (lawsuit) was all to clear his name,” said Mr. Shelton’s wife, Jennifer Shelton, who wept while the jury read the verdict.
UTC Chancellor of Finance and Operations Richard Brown said the university will consider appealing the case. “All the allegations are unsubstantiated,” Dr. Brown said. “There is no discrimination of any kind within the UTC police force.”
Mr. Shelton’s former supervisor, Cpl. Rebecca Tolbert, who is black, admitted on the witness stand that “black people don’t like white people.”
Ms. Tolbert also testified that she at one time threatened to kill Mr. Shelton, but justified the remark because she said she was scared of him. In an effort to smear his name, Ms. Tolbert admitted to telling people the former officer was a “psycho” and a “misogynist.” She also testified to deliberately trying to scare a private citizen by telling the person that she expected Mr. Shelton to “rape somebody.” When Mr. Shelton complained to his two white supervisors, however, they seemed to indicate that their hands were tied.
“It’s like I told you, Sean. You’re not a protected class of citizen,” Paul Dodds, the former UTC head sergeant, told Mr. Shelton during a recorded conversation played for the jury. “Wake up, face it. They can call us whatever they want, OK? We’re not protected, they are.”
Several jurors said the evidence made it clear that the school’s police department has a “serious problem” when it comes to race issues. “The judgment was our way of making a statement and bringing about change from the leadership down,” said the jury forewoman, who did not want her name printed because she was afraid of retaliation. “No class of citizen should be protected over another class of citizen. Not in this day and time.”
Jurors said they based their decision partly on the fact that Dr. Brown, who is black, did not appear in court to address testimony from the former university police chief that Dr. Brown “micromanages” the police force and tends to make decisions that favor black people. Because the university chose not to call Dr. Brown as a witness, Chancellor Howell Peoples said the jury could, under state law, assume his testimony might have been unfavorable to the university’s case.
“For him not to show up and represent the university ... that weighed heavily on our decision,” one juror said. That juror, like the forewoman and every other panelist, did not want his name printed for fear of backlash.
Dr. Brown said Wednesday that he gladly would have testified, and he noted that the UTC police chief is the one who makes personnel decisions within the department.
Attorneys for UTC had said Mr. Shelton lost his job after improperly turning on his blue lights and pursuing a man in North Georgia while he was off duty. Mr. Shelton showed “gross misconduct,” they said, arguing that race played no part in his firing.
Mr. Shelton’s lawyers pointed out that he never received a warning or any disciplinary action for his conduct at work. Instead, they claim, UTC fired him without an internal audit of the incident in Georgia because Mr. Shelton had a history of complaining about the reverse racism issues.
Another former UTC police officer, Abner Miranda, has a similar lawsuit pending in which the same allegations of reverse discrimination are made.
Mr. Shelton’s lawyer, Harry Burnette, said they are “thrilled” with the jury’s decision.
“I’m just amazed that, in this day and age, reverse discrimination exists, and I am befuddled that discrimination exists at all. The reality is, it still does,” Mr. Burnette said.
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