Melissa Bailey Photo
Plaintiffs leave the courthouse in 2012.
The city officially settled a lawsuit brought by five black police officers, agreeing to shell out $242,000 to the cops and their lawyer and to promote all the officers to sergeant.
The settlement was made official Friday. Click here to read it.
“It’s everything we were looking for,” said John Williams, the plaintiffs’ attorney. “We’re delighted.”
“After the Court denied the City’s motion for summary judgment, it became in the best interests of all to resolve this longstanding state court dispute over the 2009 Sergeants exam amicably rather than through further litigation,” said Nicole D. Chomiak of Nuzzo and Roberts, who represented the city in the case.
Williams represented officers Bruce Bonner, Milton Jackson, Rahque Tennant, Craig Alston, and Shafiq Abdussabur. The officers sued after the civil service commission certified a promotions list for only one year, because no Latinos scored highly enough on a 2009 promotions exam to make sergeant.
“This is what I call ‘Ricci Two,’” Williams said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court case New Haven lost after a mostly-white group of 20 firefighters sued over a promotions exam. “This was, in my view, the Ricci case with different ethnic backgrounds but otherwise the same case.”
In the text of the settlement, the city continues to deny the allegations of the plaintiffs’ complaint.
The city agreed to pay the five cops back pay as follows: $24,000 to Alston, $24,000 to Tennant, $43,000 to Abdussabur, $43,000 to Jackson, $58,000 to Bonner. Williams will receive $50,000 in attorney’s fees.
The department will promote Bonner to sergeant by May 31. He plans to retire on June 1.
The other four officers will be promoted by Dec. 11.
“It’s very good for the city,” Williams said. “It puts a very unfortunate incident behind us all.”