A jury has
awarded $6.2 million to a firefighter who said she was
harassed by colleagues because she is black and a lesbian,
harassment she says included someone mixing urine with
her mouthwash.
Brenda Lee's
lawsuit against the Los Angeles fire department also claimed
her superiors made derogatory comments about her and
that, because of her race and sexual
orientation, she was forced to perform strenuous
exercises without proper safety precautions.
Tuesday's jury
payout was the largest in a string of recent settlements
of cases alleging discrimination and retaliation against
women and minorities within the fire department.
Judge Michael L.
Stern ordered the panel back to court Thursday for a
second phase of the trial involving possible punitive
damages against Lee's former supervisor, Capt.
Christopher Hare.
Rob Kitson, Lee's
attorney, declined to comment on the case because it
was ongoing.
A spokesman for
the city attorney's office, Jonathan Diamond, said the
city would ''review its options going forward.''
Two other
firefighters in the discrimination lawsuit already have won
jury awards after their cases were tried separately.
In April a jury
awarded $1.7 million to Lewis Bressler, who claimed he
was forced to retire for backing Lee in her claims of
discrimination. Firefighter Gary Mellinger, who
alleged the department retaliated against him after he
helped Lee, settled with the city for $350,000 after a jury
found in his favor.
Councilman Jack
Weiss said the verdict was ''very alarming to anyone who
has a fiduciary responsibility over the city budget.''
''The most
important thing is to reform the fire department,'' he said.
''There's new leadership.... Hopefully that will prevent
these sorts of lawsuits.'' (AP)
