Former B'ville police officer alleges racial discrimination in lawsuit against city, FOP

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - A second lawsuit has been filed against the City of Bartlesville and Fraternal Order of Police lodge in federal court. The document was filed Tuesday — nearly a week after another officer filed a suite, hers a sexual harassment suite, against the same, according to court records.

According to the document filed, a former officer who had been with the police department since 2009 said administrative department heads and other supervising officers with the department “repeatedly and systematically” harassed him “with a barrage of racially charged comments, embarrassing statements to fellow officers, humiliation and ridicule” directly related to his Hispanic heritage which created a work environment so hostile that it affected his ability to perform his police duties.

The plaintiff in the documents said the harassment began with the roll call when the superior called his name using “an obscene term for female genitalia” for his first name.

Additionally, the plaintiff said superior officers once commented that it was “kinda funny the only ones we have problems with are the two Hispanics,” said the document, adding later that the chief of police once commented about him to another officer “He is a lot darker than I remember him being when we hired him.”

The plaintiff further alleged that when he brought these matters to the attention of his supervisors and the police chief, they retaliated and denied him promotions or reduced his salary. Additionally, he said he was subjected to additional criticism, harassment from his cow-workers and had "secret personnel files" created to store information against him.

He said on rare occasions after he had made his complaints known to the city and the FOP, they assured him appropriate disciplinary action would be taken. However, he found that instead, his superiors who were also superiors in the FOP, extended his probationary period against police department policy.
The court document said as retaliation he was sent to remedial training and was criticized by his superiors for using big words in his reports “resulting eventually in Plaintiff's termination of employment.”

The plaintiff said when he was fired from the department, he was “paraded from the squad room to the parking lot by a supervisor on directions from the Police Chief and then went to City Hall to sign his termination papers” where he alleged the city manager and human resources director “jubilantly celebrated” the event in front of him.

According to the lawsuit papers, the plaintiff is seeking $3 million in actual damages and $3 million in punitive damages.

The city manager said the City of Bartlesville had no comment on the lawsuit as the issue is still in proceedings. The Bartlesville Police Department also supplied no comment.