LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A judge has denied a request by the attorney for six Black Los Angeles Fire Department employees to allow the questioning of jurors in the wake of a verdict in which only two were awarded damages in their long-running lawsuit alleging the department is governed by a “good old white boys club.”
Arson investigators Leslie Wilkerson, Joseph Smith, Justin Davis, Robert McLoud, Sean Morris and Mario Newte brought the 89-page Los Angeles Superior Court complaint in June 2021, alleging racial discrimination, hostile work environment and failure to prevent harassment, retaliation and discrimination.
The plaintiffs said they were targeted for criticism and denied fair and equal chances for promotions. Wilkerson and Newte are now retired. In their March 3 verdict, jurors awarded damages only to Newte and Morris with each given just over $600,000.
In court papers filed after the trial with Judge Michael Shultz, plaintiffs’ attorney Nancy Doumanian stated that the court acknowledged that the changing verdict forms during deliberations may have created confusion and he apologized to the jury. The judge heard arguments on April 23 regarding Doumanian’s motion to question jurors about their deliberations, took the issues under submission and ruled against the plaintiffs on Tuesday.
“The (law) requires more than a generalized desire to investigate possible juror error,” Shultz wrote. “A petition must be supported by specific facts establishing a reasonable belief that misconduct occurred and that further investigation is warranted; speculative assertions or a request to conduct a `fishing expedition’ are insufficient.”
The investigators do not allege any recognized form of juror misconduct, such as exposure to extrinsic evidence, improper communication, concealed bias or an improper deliberation method, according to the judge.
“Instead, plaintiffs speculate that jurors may have been confused by evolving verdict forms,” the judge said.
In her court papers, Doumanian said she wanted the juror identifying information “solely to determine whether the evolving verdict forms caused confusion affecting the verdict.”
The judge also allowed a second set of closing arguments by both sides after deliberations had already started limited to the issue of the city’s business necessity defense, according to Doumanian’s court papers. In California, the business necessity defense is used in employment discrimination cases to justify a neutral policy that disproportionately harms a protected group.
In their previous court papers, attorneys for the city denied the plaintiffs’ lawsuit claims.
“The LAFD is deeply troubled by the allegations brought by the plaintiffs and the tension among members in the arson section,” the city’s lawyers stated in their pleadings, adding that the division recruits, hires and promotes firefighters based on talent and work ethic. “Despite being a very small section, it is committed to diversity and that commitment is reflected in its membership,” the city lawyers’ pleadings further stated.
But according to the lawsuit, while the LAFD is very good at putting out fires and rescue services, what is sorely lacking in the department is respect and fairness in dealings with minority employees, especially Blacks.
The LAFD “has a very hostile attitude toward and disdain of its Black workforce and regularly engages in adverse employment actions against them, including sham investigations, false allegations of workplace misconduct and failure to promote and investigate complaints of workplace mistreatment and discrimination and to consistently apply workplace policies and rules,” according to the suit, which further contended that the department is governed by a “good old white boys club” where Black employees are “abused, denigrated, ignored and disrespected.”
The LAFD’s decision-makers tend to be white men who “hold very racist and bigoted attitudes and do not believe in diversity, equity or inclusion in the workplace,” the suit alleged. “Those minorities who don’t play their game are abused and mistreated in the workplace and their work lives are made miserable.”
The suit further alleged that the LAFD “has a checkered history of racial harassment, intimidation and retaliation and has been the subject of many court actions that have exposed such bad behavior. Nevertheless, the culture of hatred and racism continues unabated and there have been no sincere reforms implemented to bring about an end to such racist hostility and racial abuse.”
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