Rulings on Bias in Sheriff Dept.

Since 1980 it has been my honor to represent more than 750 female deputy sheriffs in a federal court employment discrimination class action. In July the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld the U.S. District Court’s judgment that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department engaged in intentional employment discrimination against female deputies and used discriminatory promotional examinations that had a discriminatory effect on women.

Thus, despite Sheriff Sherman Block’s protestations of innocence (Letters, Sept. 7), during his tenure, four federal judges have found that the Sheriff’s Department intentionally discriminated against women by not promoting them to sergeant. Since March, 1988, Block has been charged, by a federal court injunction, with the responsibility to design and administer a fair and non-biased sergeant examination. In the intervening 3 1/2 years the sheriff has stubbornly refused to mend his ways. The result is a shortage of 175 sergeants.

The lack of sergeant promotions is a byproduct of the unlawful acts of the sheriff and his chosen management team. The sheriff erroneously argues that over the past 10 years things have improved. The fact that veteran female deputies would only speak to The Times on condition of anonymity speaks volumes to the existence of a “code of silence.” Conditions for women deputies are worse than ever.

There continue to be quotas on the usage of female deputies. Female deputies are subjected daily to abusive and sexist remarks by male supervisors. The number of claims of sex discrimination against the department continues to climb.

The sheriff is mistaken when he seeks to rely on the department’s supposed national leadership in equal employment opportunities. His department will soon be passed by the Los Angeles Police Department in terms of both the absolute numbers of female officers employed and the freedom with which they are assigned throughout their respective departments. The Sheriff’s Department falls far below the LAPD in terms of the type of sexist conduct that it openly permits male employees to engage in without fear of disciplinary action. There is a direct relationship between such unlawful conduct and the seeming inability of the sheriff and his managers to properly manage the department in other ways.

DENNIS M. HARLEY, Pasadena