Fired Black Officer Alleges Prejudice in Lawsuit Against LAPD : Courts: Brian K. Powell contends he was harassed by Valley supervisors and was the target of racial remarks.

A former police officer has sued the Los Angeles Police Department in federal court, charging that he was hit with trumped-up charges and fired because of institutional prejudice against African Americans.

Former Sgt. Brian K. Powell said police supervisors in the San Fernando Valley harassed him, made racial remarks and even ordered him put under surveillance in an attempt to find enough “false or exaggerated” evidence against him to force him from the department.

The federal lawsuit, filed Jan. 20 in U.S. District Court, contends that the department violated Powell’s civil rights to equal opportunity and to be free of racial discrimination.

“I was humiliated, embarrassed, dehumanized and degraded,” Powell said in an interview.

His West Valley Division supervisors and officers alike were overtly hostile to him, he said, second-guessing his judgment in the field and in the station, and were openly bitter that he had been promoted to sergeant in less than six years.

Under departmental policy, the Police Department does not comment on lawsuits involving personnel matters, Police Lt. John Dunkin said.

But in a Dec. 3 report recommending Powell’s termination, a police disciplinary panel said it had decided unanimously to fire Powell because of his “overall performance” and his lack of “commitment to the job, and willingness to be responsive to supervisory review.”

Powell, 32, who was awarded the department’s highest honor--a Medal of Valor--was suspended for several violations of department policy and then terminated last month.

Powell was accused of a number of alleged misdeeds, the most serious of which included wearing a department uniform while working an off-duty job, misusing a department computer on several occasions in August, 1992, and knowingly submitting a falsified “quality service audit”--a report on how an officer who worked for him handled a routine radio call. The audits are a tool the Police Department uses to evaluate police interaction with the public by interviewing those who had contact with an officer.

Powell also was found guilty of checking department computers for confidential information about two acquaintances, according to the board of rights report on Powell’s dismissal.

In the board of rights report, one supervisor testified that Powell “could not function as a supervisor because of the character flaw of a basic lack of integrity.”

Powell, in court documents and an interview, contended he was forced to adhere to a higher professional standard than white officers, and that he did nothing to deserve being fired. He said he plans to seek his old job back in a separate lawsuit to be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

He said the supervisor who questioned his character was white, as were all the other police supervisors who initiated disciplinary actions against him. All of those complaints, he said, “were falsely lodged due to an intense personal dislike for plaintiff individually and black officers in general.”

In the lawsuit, Powell said he was not only subjected to unequal terms and conditions of employment, but that he was punished more severely than white officers. Whenever a complaint against him failed to get him fired, he contends, another one would immediately be initiated, for the purpose of blocking any promotion for him until he could be dismissed.

Powell contends that he has endured “humiliations and indignities” that have caused him to suffer physical, mental and emotional pain, as well as lost income and benefits. Powell and his lawyer said they have not specified monetary damages in the lawsuit, but said the amount to be asked eventually would be significant because the department’s action derailed his lifelong ambition to be a police officer.

“We’re not talking about a patrolman working a street beat,” said Powell’s lawyer, Robert M. Ross. “We’re talking about a sergeant with nine years on the force and a Medal of Valor.”

Police records show that Powell had other disciplinary problems. He was suspended for 129 days in July, 1993, for spending unauthorized time at his residence, without noting that on his official log.

Dunkin said police can take lunch breaks wherever they want within their area of patrol. “But even if you live within the division, you can’t spend time at home and put down on a log you were someplace else,” Dunkin said.

Powell said such a lengthy suspension for unauthorized trips to his house was an indication of the prejudice he was facing.

Powell also took his complaints to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In an affidavit, dated Sept. 20, 1993, to the EEOC, Powell said: “I believe that I was suspended because of my race,” and that a supervising lieutenant told him “blacks should not be in supervision” and that he was “out to get” Powell.

The former sergeant also swore in the document that the lieutenant ordered other officers to follow him and monitor his activities, and that those officers saw him go to his residence while on duty. But Powell said he was within his rights to go home, since he lives within his police jurisdiction, and that he was only going home to use the bathroom.