3 Black officers win $1 million in Pierce County racism lawsuit

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. – A trio of black women who worked at the Pierce County jail won a more than $1 million settlement for their lawsuit accusing the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department of pervasive sexism and racism .

Lt. Charla James-Hutchison and Sergeants Dione Alexander and Sabrina Braswell-Bouyer filed the lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court in 2021, alleging that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department “participated in and ignored racial harassment and discrimination and sex-based discrimination and.” allowed the culture of hostility towards African Americans and women to grow and fester.”

The women accepted the county’s verdict offers, which awarded officers $1,052,978.78, according to a March 18 court filing.

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Officers’ attorney Meaghan M. Driscoll said examples of the toxic environment were easy to find.

According to Pierce County statistics as of November 2021, only 12 black women work for the sheriff’s department, which employs 689 people.

“Using the N-word in prisons, using comments like Black protesters should be shot or run over,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll said the three women tried to tell their supervisors about their treatment at the Pierce County jail, but their complaints were ignored. The officers’ attorney said it was a common incident for black employees in the sheriff’s department.

“If an African-American employee files a complaint, they can sit there for a year before even being approached or investigated,” Driscoll said. “If a Caucasian employee files a complaint, it is dealt with immediately.”

Driscoll recommended that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department conduct additional training, add more oversight, and investigate grievances to create a better work environment for its employees.

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Another woman who works with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department filed a lawsuit in late March accusing the leadership of sexism.

Detective Sergeant Jessica Whitehead, a 15-year veteran of the department, said in the lawsuit she had problems with Lt. Kevin Roberts, one of their male leaders.

In the lawsuit, Whitehead said Roberts hired a male detective sergeant to run the Sexual Assault Unit (SAU) because he “didn’t want two female officers running the SAU back-to-back.”

Whitehead’s lawsuit pending.