Trial Starts in ’94 Suit Alleging CHP Bias

A class-action lawsuit charging that nonwhite officers in the California Highway Patrol were denied promotions and coveted assignments during the early 1990s got underway before a Los Angeles federal court jury Thursday with an exchange of claims and counterclaims by opposing lawyers.

The suit, brought in 1994 by a black CHP lieutenant, is just now going to trial because of a string of protracted appeals and pretrial disputes that fill 46 volumes in the U.S. District Court clerk’s office.

At the center of the dispute is former Lt. Jeff Paige, 60, of Diamond Bar, who retired from the department after 30 years, contending that he and other African American officers were denied advancement because of their race. Paige also alleged in his suit that the CHP tolerated racial slurs and other abuses directed at minority officers.

In his opening statement to the 12-member jury Thursday, Paige’s lawyer, Dan Stormer, cited official figures from 1993 that he said showed a pattern of discrimination in the promotion of minority officers. Out of a total of 5,675 sworn officers, 1,119 were minorities, he said, but only 102 of those minority officers held a rank above traffic officer. Stormer said he would produce a statistical expert to testify that the disparity could not have occurred by chance.

Paige, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees, said in his lawsuit that he hit a “brick wall” after rising to the rank of lieutenant. He said he took the captain’s exam in 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1994, but was never selected for promotion despite an unblemished record.

After filing discrimination claims with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and suing in U.S. District Court, Paige said he was subjected to retaliation by his superiors that included being forcibly transferred and falsely charged with misconduct. He left the CHP in 1996.

Defense attorney W. Randolph Teslik, however, told jurors that the evidence will show that “during Lt. Paige’s entire career, he never had been the victim of racial discrimination.”

To the contrary, he said, Paige was given encouragement and assigned to coveted high-profile assignments while serving as sergeant and lieutenant. He said Paige was passed over for promotion to captain because he fared poorly during the oral phase of the selection process. Stormer contended that the CHP used the oral interview as a device to downgrade minority candidates.

Teslik said the defense expects to call a number of African American, Latino and Asian American officers, who will testify that the CHP has been “one of the most progressive law enforcement agencies in this state.”

In addition to unspecified compensatory damages, the plaintiffs are seeking an injunction that would require the CHP to establish percentage targets for the promotion of minority officers, create outside oversight of its promotional process and mandate more diversity training for CHP rank-and-file as well as managers.