Latino Cop Wins His Bias Claim

A Latino police officer was discriminated against in 1985 when the Glendale Police Department passed him over for promotion to sergeant and chose an Anglo officer instead, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian Jr. ordered that the Latino officer, Ricardo L. Jauregui, be immediately promoted to sergeant and given an estimated $8,000 in back pay, the difference between his current salary and what he would have been paid as a sergeant since February, 1985, the month he was passed over for promotion.

The judge’s opinion came after the conclusion of a bitter, month-long trial during which Jauregui contended that racism is widespread in the Glendale Police Department. His attorney introduced as evidence a series of flyers and cartoons, distributed in the department, which depicted blacks and Latinos in a derogatory light.

Glendale officials said Wednesday that they plan to appeal the decision, and said they do not believe that they must immediately promote Jauregui, a 38-year-old patrolman with 13 years on the force.

In the strongly worded opinion, Tevrizian found that the department, which has no women or members of minorities at the rank of sergeant or above, acted “arbitrarily, capriciously and discriminatorily” in denying the sergeant’s promotion to Jauregui.

The ruling stated that the city “discriminated against plaintiff because of plaintiff’s ethnic background. Clearly, as of February 16, 1985, the written personnel records and evidence disclose that plaintiff was the most qualified individual for the promotion.”

City Atty. Frank R. Manzano said that he was “rather disappointed in the judge’s decision” and that he plans to recommend that the matter be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Meanwhile, Chief Thompson said, he will personally ask each City Council member to approve appealing the judge’s ruling. During the trial, Thompson testified that Jauregui is “rude, arrogant and abrasive,” and for those reasons would not make a good supervisor. Thompson and other police officials denied during the trial that bias had anything with the decision not to promote Jauregui.

“My opinion as not changed about (Jauregui’s) qualifications for supervisor,” Thompson said Wednesday. He called the ruling “repugnant” and said that promoting Jauregui to sergeant would generate hostility among the police officers “who honestly and courageously” testified on behalf of the city.

Jauregui, through his attorney, said he is “delighted” with the decision but declined to comment further, saying he did not want to damage his future work relationship with the department.

Jauregui’s attorney, David Alkire said Wednesday that the city has no right to withhold the promotion from his client even if the case is appealed. “The judge will decide what the City of Glendale will do,” Alkire said.

During the trial, Jauregui alleged that he was a better-qualified candidate for promotion to sergeant than Randall Tampa, an Anglo officer with 10 years on the force. Tampa testified at the trial that he had drawn “in jest” some of the derogatory flyers that became the focus of much of the trial, and said he, along with at least two other officers, posted them within the department.

City officials maintained that they did not know about the flyers, except for one. Tampa was verbally reprimanded for making that one, which showed a pair of apes with the faces of two black officers.

In closing arguments Friday, Alkire said, “The chief and others who pretend ignorance of what was going on maintained their ignorance by keeping their heads in the sand.”

Tevrizian ordered an investigation by city officials into the origins of the flyers. That investigation is still continuing, City Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said Tuesday.

Assistant City Atty. Scott Howard, who defended the city, said during final arguments, that the Police Department had a Latino sergeant in the early 1960s and until recently had a female sergeant. That proves, he said, the city does promote women and minorities.

Of the flyers, Howard said they were part of the “sick locker-room humor” to which police officers, because of the stress of their jobs, often resort. Even so, the city does not condone such practices, Howard said.

He said the testimony of three black officers who told of several racial incidents that they say have occurred over the last five years was suspect because the officers once considered filing their own discrimination suit.

Before the trial, the same three officers also submitted to Howard the flyers, which they testified that they had collected from Police Department walls and bulletin boards.

Many accusations were hurled in the courtroom, the most dramatic of which came two weeks ago when Alkire alleged that Howard had tried to talk two of those black officers into burning copies of the flyers rather than let them be used against the city by the plaintiff. Howard denied that accusation, and Tevrizian, saying such testimony was irrelevant, did not allow a police official to testify on the matter.

The trial, which has bitterly divided the Police Department, began Sept. 10 and was expected to last four days. Instead, it stretched to 12 court days over four-week period, with more than 50 witnesses taking the stand.