Felisa Cardona Denver Post Staff Writer
Copyright 2006 The Denver Post
All Rights Reserved
Twenty-one additional complaints of discrimination in hiring, recruitment, discipline and a hostile work environment have been filed against the Denver Police Department and the city’s Civil Service Commission by the Denver Police Latino Organization.
The new complaints bring to 29 the total former, current and potential officers who are accusing the department of engaging in a pattern and practice of discrimination they say goes back to the early 1970s.
“This needs to be fixed for future officers,” Sgt. Leonard Mares, chapter secretary, said Sunday.
In one of the new allegations, a Latina officer said she was sexually assaulted on the job by a white officer and her case was never resolved by internal affairs, Mares said. The officer she accused of assault retired without incident, he said.
In another complaint, two officers who worked in the gang unit filed internal affairs complaints against another officer who placed their names above pictures of Latino caricatures called Homie Dolls, and they say there was never a resolution to the case, said Detective Rufino Trujillo, chapter president.
In March, eight Latino officers came forward to say they were filing federal complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice.
So far, the EEOC has found at least one of those original complaints credible, Trujillo said. Trujillo declined to be specific about which incident the EEOC found credible, and the EEOC does not comment on any allegations that are filed.
Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman did not return a phone call for comment late Sunday when contacted through his spokeswoman. In the past, Whitman and other city officials have declined to comment because they had not yet viewed the actual complaints.
The EEOC review typically opens the door for employees to file a lawsuit if their allegations are found credible; the Department of Justice can pursue criminal and civil action if an investigation finds evidence of bias.
A couple of weeks after the original eight officers came forward, the Police Department began posting EEOC information so people were aware of their rights, something that had not been done in the past, in violation of federal law, Trujillo said.
“They finally tried to get into compliance,” he said.
Not all of the new complaints were filed by Latinos. Some of the officers who claim discrimination are black, white, gay or disabled, Mares said.
“The other organizations are not stepping up, and they are afraid,” Mares said of varied backgrounds of the officers joining the Latinos’ complaints. “It’s time to make a stand.”
The Latino officers have planned a news conference for 10 a.m. today at 924 W. Colfax Ave. to discuss the new allegations.
The officers also expect to discuss retaliation they say has happened since March when they announced they were seeking federal assistance.
“They are only going to give us more fuel to the fire if they retaliate,” Mares said.
Trujillo said he was harassed by a department chief because he refused to search a landfill for the body of Teresa Schilt, a Denver woman police believe was killed by her husband. Trujillo’s health could worsen, he said, if he were exposed to bacteria at the site.
The organization is also calling for officers from other agencies in Colorado to contact it if they feel similar problems exist in their departments. Police officers in other states have filed similar complaints and received cash judgments.
“This is about wholesale change,” Mares said. “But there has to be some sort of restitution for mental anguish.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
May 15, 2006