Legal Question in Discrimination Law in South Carolina
Do I have at least one1st Amendment and two 14th Amendment violations?
I medically retired from a police dept I worked at for 20 yrs. In the 20 yrs the dept constantly practiced biased race and sex disciplinaries and promotions The rules vary between male/female on physical requirements and appearance (ie. hair, etc) I gave an employee a sex comdedy card The employee thought it comical. The employee's stepfather complained The employee was ordered to write a report on the card incident It had a statement within the report by the employee that the employee had not found the joke offensive. This incident was used to demote me 2 grades of rank and 5 paygrades. My position was immediately replaced with an officer of another sex and race. I was also ordered by the Chief not to talk to the employee about the matter, in an attempt to keep me from discovering no complaint had been made. I was sent word by the employee that the report stated that the card hadn't been offensive. The whole deal was made up to demote & replace me. I was forced to retire. It put me in a position more physically strenuous. Is there a 1st Amendment viol. when ordered not to talk to the employee? Is there a 14 Amendment violation of sex and race discrimination? I have documentation dating back 15+ yrs to support. I complained to the S.C. Human Affairs Comm. who, after beginning investigation, filed the complaint also with the EEOC. Results pending. Is there a lawyer willing to represent on a no-win/no-pay (25% out-of-court/40% in-court)
1 Answer from Attorneys
Discrimination in South Carolina
I worked in county governement as an attorney for eight years in Ohio. And it was a law enforcement organization. These people must attend seminars together where they learn common techniques in how to make an organization dysfunctional.
I don't know how old you are from the query. However, my off the cuff opinion is that you probably have an age discrimination case. if your account is accurate, it probably was a setup. And if these people are as brainless as they sound, they probably left tracks; which doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy to prove.
I should note that I don't think you have a 1st amendment case only because the chief would probably respond that the order was necessary to protect the employee from harassment under the assumption that the complaint was legitimate.
It looks like they wanted to replace you with someone younger. The fact that the person was of a another race and sex could be a smokescreen. (I am assuming that you are caucasian and male).
By the way, you wouldn't be the first individual caught up in the lunatic fringe of sex discrimination enforcement. Remember the playground incident which culminated in the suspension of a kindergarten student who kissed a little girl? The boy had violated the sexual harassment guidelines established by the district (was that in your part of the world?).
Obviously, I am telling you all this based on a couple of paragraphs. As a cop, you must know lawyers. Defense lawyers (if they are still talking to you) would be a good starting place. Ask around about anyone doing labor and civil rights. Try to find a lawyer who successfully litigated a civil rights and/or labor case against one of the political subdivisions. These cases tend to be high profile. So chances are someone is going to know who the lawyer was.
If you need more info, I'll try to find out for you although being in Ohio it would be long distance and probably not as efficient as someone local doing the checking. Good luck.
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