A judge has denied a new trial for four Black Los Angeles Fire Department employees not awarded damages in a long-running lawsuit alleging the department is governed by a “good old white boys club.”
Judge Michael Shultz ruled Thursday that the jury reached correct verdicts.
Arson investigators Leslie Wilkerson, Joseph Smith, Justin Davis, Robert McLoud, Sean Morris and Mario Newte brought the 89-page Los Angeles Superior Court complaint in June 2021, alleging racial discrimination, hostile work environment and failure to prevent harassment, retaliation and discrimination.
The plaintiffs said they were targeted for criticism and denied fair and equal chances for promotions. Wilkerson and Newte are now retired. In their March 3 verdict, jurors awarded damages only to Newte and Morris with each given just over $600,000.
In court papers filed after the trial, plaintiffs’ attorney Nancy Doumanian said that based on a section of the state Code of Civil Procedure, the four plaintiffs denied damages are entitled to a new trial. In his ruling, the judge disagreed.
“After independently weighing the entire record, the court is firmly convinced that the jury reached the correct result,” the judge wrote.
During their deliberations, jurors exposed problems in the verdict forms, Doumanian contended. When the judge ordered an amended set of verdict forms, they should have been told to turn back in the previous forms, Doumanian says. The jurors were instead allowed to use the forms as they wanted except as the final verdict forms, according to Doumanian.
Once again, Shultz disagreed.
“Having independently reviewed the entire record, the court is firmly convinced that the verdicts reflect the jury’s reasoned evaluation of the evidence and were not affected by any defect in the special verdict forms or the procedure used to correct them,” Shultz said.
In their court papers filed in opposition to a new trial for the four plaintiffs, attorneys for the city contended the ultimate special verdict forms the jury used correctly reflected the law.
“No evidence suggests that the verdict forms confused the jurors because when the jury had questions, the court answered with correct statements of law and allowed the parties to argue their respective positions to the jury,” the city’s lawyers write in their court papers.
The four plaintiffs were not prejudiced because it is “not more likely they would have achieved a different verdict,” the city’s attorneys further state in their court papers.
The suit alleged the LAFD’s decision-makers tend to be white men who “hold very racist and bigoted attitudes and do not believe in diversity, equity or inclusion in the workplace. Those minorities who don’t play their game are abused and mistreated in the workplace and their work lives are made miserable.”
The suit further alleged the LAFD “has a checkered history of racial harassment, intimidation and retaliation, and has been the subject of many court actions that have exposed such bad behavior. Nevertheless, the culture of hatred and racism continues unabated and there have been no sincere reforms implemented to bring about an end to such racist hostility and racial abuse.”