Los Angeles – In the latest of a series of discrimination verdicts against the Los Angeles Fire Department, a jury this week awarded $6.2 million to a female firefighter who claimed she was harassed because she is black and a lesbian.
Brenda Lee is due back in court today for the jury to consider punitive damages against her former supervisors. That could result in the city paying her even more money, officials said.
“For one case, this is a major hit on the city budget,” Councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the council’s public-safety committee, said Wednesday.
Weiss added, however, that the Fire Department is “under new leadership committed to changing the culture.”
“It’s beyond anyone’s ability to change the past,” he said.
Allegations of racial and sexual discrimination have roiled the department for at least two years, prompting former Chief William Bamattre to step down at the end of last year. Also last year, an audit by City Controller Laura Chick found that 87 percent of blacks and nearly 80 percent of women in the department were aware of or had experienced discrimination.
Lee filed her suit in 2005. She alleged, among other things, that she was retaliated against for complaining about discrimination and was later declared unfit for duty by the department.
Jonathan Diamond, a spokesman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, said Wednesday that lawyers for the city are reviewing their options in the Lee verdict.
In related cases, two other firefighters who worked with Lee have won awards in lawsuits charging they suffered retaliation for supporting her.
Lewis Bressler won $1.7 million from a jury this past spring. Gary Mellinger settled with the city last November for $350,000. Last September, firefighter Ruthie Bernal was paid $320,000 by the city to settle a sexual-harassment and battery lawsuit.
