Discrimination Suit Against Sheriff’s Department Settled

After eight years of litigation, a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department alleging racial and sexual discrimination has been settled without a trial.

In the suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, three female and nine male deputies, all black, contended they were subjected to an “ongoing pattern” of racial and sexual harassment at the Sheriff’s Department between 1982 and 1991.

The alleged harassment included jokes, pranks, and discriminatory hiring and promotion practices.

On Friday, the lawsuit was settled with the Sheriff’s Department not admitting liability, but agreeing to pay for course work for the plaintiffs over the next 10 years. Each of the eight plaintiffs who stayed with the lawsuit was awarded up to $50,000 worth of law enforcement course work intended to help advance their careers.

The settlement also formalizes policies in the department that began in 1991 to promote diversity and cross-cultural awareness. They include ongoing sensitivity training on race and gender issues, procedures on how racial harassment or discrimination claims are investigated and objective ways for new jobs to be posted.

Although a total of $7.5 million in claims had been filed against the county, the settlement did not give a cash award to the plaintiffs.

“I’m satisfied,” said Capt. Kenton Rainey, who oversees the sheriff’s headquarters in Ventura, and is a plaintiff in the case. “This was never about money. The county’s attorneys missed the boat when they made that a big issue.

“What’s important is that to a certain point, things have changed,” Rainey said Wednesday. “There have definitely been strides made as far as minority representation at the department. But mainly, they’ve opened up the process that says who gets the specialized assignments.”

David Epstein, a private attorney hired to defend the case along with the county counsel’s office, disagreed that the suit was only about changing the system.

“In April 1995, the department agreed to the structural changes,” Epstein said. “The department took the position then that we would be very happy to provide new programs and training. From April 1995, money was the only thing this suit was about.”

The cost for attorneys on both sides and court costs totaled about $1.33 million, Epstein said. A federal court judge ordered the county to pay about $778,000 to cover the cost of the deputies’ lawyers and any other costs associated with the deputies’ part of the suit.