The city of West Covina reached a settlement with a former police officer who sued the city and four of his white ex-supervisors, alleging he was fired in 2017 after a little more than a year on the job for complaining that he was harassed because of his race and was called “big black ghetto cop” and “the black kid,” court papers obtained Tuesday show.
Lawyers for Joshua Volasgis filed court papers on Aug. 15 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Monica Bachner stating that the settlement was “unconditional.” No terms were divulged.
The city and Lt. Ronald Allen, Lt. Kenneth Plunket, Sgt. Houston Clements and Sgt. Brian Prizzi were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed last September and alleged racial discrimination and harassment, retaliation and failure to prevent harassment and discrimination.
The city countered that Volasgis was the subject of multiple citizen complaints, including one brought in 2016 by a black man unhappy about how the officer had treated him and a woman who accused him of being rude and of lying on a police report in 2017.
“No other police officer who has reported to Prizzi has ever been accused of lying on the crime/incident report,” according to the city’s court papers.
According to his lawsuit, Volasgis performed his duties in an “exemplary fashion” after being hired by the city in June 2016. He claimed that throughout his employment, his supervisors told him his main focus should be to “stop blacks in West Covina” because he had “free reign over the black community because plaintiff does not have to fear any allegations of racial bias.”
“Almost immediately after being hired, plaintiff began to be harassed because of his race,” his suit stated. “Plaintiff was subjected to inappropriate racial comments, jokes and slurs concerning his race on a daily basis.”
In addition to calling him “big black ghetto cop” and “the black kid,” his supervisors told him that the next time a burglary occurred, they would send him to the scene without a badge, meaning that no suspect would see him so long as he did not smile, according to his court papers.
Volasgis alleged his bosses also told him that he “would not like it if (they) called plaintiff (the N-word),” and they spoke to him in a “slave-era dialect.”
Volasgis says he complained about the remarks and the alleged mistreatment, but the comments and harassment only increased.
The plaintiff alleges that Allen told him, “Remember who you are and what you are,” and that Plunket told him, “Reputation means a lot here and we are like a small family.”
After telling Volasgis that he had a “stack of blank internal affairs investigations in my office with your name on them,” Clements warned the plaintiff, “Keep pushing it,” the suit alleges.
Volasgis alleged he was wrongfully suspended in April 2017 in connection with an incident in which a suspect struck two officers while reaching for a box cutter.
Volasgis, who was fired in August 2017, said he was told he lost his job for “failing to satisfactorily meet the requirements of probation.” He alleged he actually lost his job for coming forward with his complaints about his supervisors’ conduct toward him.