Black policeman wins suit

A jury on Sept. 22 awarded $3.12 million in damages to a Los Angeles police officer who claimed he suffered retaliation after alleging that a supervisor made racist slurs and stole money from a police youth program.
Robert Hill, 48, an African American, claimed he was being retaliated against for reporting to superiors in 2004 that a supervisor made derogatory comments about blacks and Latinos and had taken money from the police Explorer program.
Hill sued the city in January 2007 after he was transferred from the police department’s Newton division to the Northeast Division. Hill then claimed that he was given inferior assignments and was passed over for promotion to sergeant.
Hill was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $127,000 in economic damages in a Superior Court trial.
The city attorney’s office said that Hill was transferred because he did not get along with his supervisor. The supervisor denied any of the wrongdoing alleged by Hill.
The city attorney’s office is considering whether to appeal the award, said Frank Mateljan, spokesperson for the city attorney’s office.