On September 20, 2017,
the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled in
favor of an employment discrimination plaintiff represented by Mastagni
Holstedt, APC, denying the defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Mastagni
Holstedt, APC represents a Butte County Sheriff’s Deputy, Michael Sears, in
this federal Racial Discrimination and Harassment lawsuit against the Butte
County Sheriff’s Office and a number of individual employees of the Sheriff’s
Office.
In the lawsuit, Deputy
Sears – who is African American – asserts that members of the Butte County
Sheriff’s Office engaged in derogatory and hateful speech because of race,
including use of the word the “N-word” and terms such as “Canadian Blue
Gum.” Mr. Sears charges that a black and
white plastic panda figurine was hanged in a Sheriff’s facility and Mr. Sears
was told that “the hanging doll symbolized Mr. Sears because Mr. Sears is
half-Black and half-White.” Mr. Sears
charges that he was denied promotional opportunities and other job
benefits. Taking evidence of these
allegations into consideration – along with evidence of many more instances of
racially discriminatory conduct – the Federal Court reasoned that “Plaintiff
has offered sufficient evidence in the current posture to show that he was
subject to discriminatory and harassing conduct and there are numerous triable
issues of fact as to whether Defendants’ proffered reasons for their actions
were legitimate or pretextual.”
