By Tim Knauss
syracuse.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County officials plan to pay $400,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former sheriff’s deputy who said she was harassed, retaliated against, and passed over for promotion because she is a Black female.
Kamilla Peck sued in March 2021 and the case went to trial this month in federal court. Three days into the trial, Peck and county officials agreed to settle.
The county legislature will vote Tuesday on the proposed settlement.
Peck, who joined the sheriff’s office as a custody deputy in 2006, transferred from jail duty to the Community Relations Unit in 2018. At the time, Peck was told by her immediate superior that she was only assigned to the unit “because you are Black,’’ according to her lawsuit.
County officials denied that assertion. But another deputy said in a sworn statement that she was told the same thing about Peck’s assignment to the unit.
According to the lawsuit, Peck was subjected to a hostile work environment. She said she was mocked for her Black dialect by superiors who said, for example, “Yeah, I am going to do DAT.”
Among other insults, two officers in her unit identified Peck on their phones with a photo of actress Octavia Spencer in her role as a maid in “The Help.’’ Peck was in tears after seeing that, a fellow employee testified.
In 2019, Peck was passed over a second time for promotion to sergeant, despite having longer experience than two deputies who were chosen ahead of her and despite achieving a higher score of 95 on the civil service exam, Peck’s lawyer said in court filings.
After Peck was injured in a fall at work, several fellow employees who doubted the extent of her injury watched a video of the accident and mocked Peck, according to the lawsuit.
“I do recall there was laughter,’’ a fellow deputy said in an affidavit.
Peck filed a discrimination complaint in June 2020 with the state Division of Human Rights. She was on medical leave related to her work injury from September to November of that year.
“When she returned, she had most of her job duties eliminated and she was relegated to perform menial tasks,’’ according to Peck’s complaint. Among those assignments was counting thousands of items in a basement supply closet, she said.
County officials replied that taking inventory was a routine task that other deputies had performed.
In their answer to Peck’s lawsuit, officials in the sheriff’s office denied that she was discriminated against and expressed surprise that she felt that way.
An internal investigation by the county personnel department determined that Peck’s complaint of racial discrimination and harassment was “unfounded,” county officials said.
Peck retired on medical disability in December 2023, according to county records.
Peck’s attorney and a county lawyer declined to discuss the pending settlement.
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Staff writer Tim Knauss can be reached at: email | Twitter | 315-470-3023.
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