Ypsilanti police officer sues for race discrimination
A white Ypsilanti police officer who was passed over for a promotion has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city of choosing "far less qualified" black colleague over him.
Officer Kent Overton is suing the city of Ypsilanti for race discrimination and is seeking a promotion to sergeant, back pay and other relief.
Overton, a 10-year veteran, achieved the highest combined test score during the promotional process in August 2007, the lawsuit says.
Overton's attorney, Jim Fett, called him a victim of a push by the city's elected officials for diversity.
"Obviously, he's very disappointed that merit was not the basis for selection," Fett said. "And when people talk about diversity, it means they're gonna screw the white guy over."
Attorney Roger Smith, who is representing the city, declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuit.
Overton met or exceeded standards during performance reviews throughout his career and has no disciplinary history, according to the suit filed in late August. He volunteered in the community and worked as a department firearms instructor, was a member of the SWAT team and was a detective, the suit says.
Overton received the "highest score on the written examination," the suit claims, and the second-highest score during an assessment by a private company.
Overton alleges in the lawsuit that when he completed the written examination, then Lt. Mark Angott asked him and another officer "why they were 'wasting' their time." Angott told Overton the department's "administration wanted a black supervisor," the suit says.
Former Police Chief Matt Harshberger, now Pittsfield Township's public safety director, selected Officer Eddie Davis, who is black, for the position, according to the suit.
The lawsuit further alleges Lt. Paul DeRidder, who is now the interim chief, Lt. Craig Annas, Sgt. Thomas Eberts and Sgt. Troy Fulton all told Overton that Harshberger "did what he had to do" to protect his job.
Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at leehiggins@annarbor.com or 734-623-2527.
Comments
truth1
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 4:44 p.m.
The neutral party that evaluted them are the ones that placed Davis first. Overton only scored higher on the written portion not the neutral assessment. Overton was not the highest on combined scores there is no such thing. The scores do not combine written and assessment are two totally different tests. You advance to the assessment based on the written.
jester32b
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 9:09 p.m.
Good for Overton to stand up for himself. And as for Blackhorse2, this is an obvious case that shows discrimination goes both ways in our society today. Especially in this case where a neutral party evaluated the candidates and Overton achieved the highest combined score. It will be a great day when I see Overton on the streets with his (well earned)SGT stripes on his uniform. Stay safe
RealityCheck
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 10:44 p.m.
GOOD CAREER MOVE OVERTON. I hope you know that you will have to pay for the City's attorney fees and related costs after you lose this lawsuit. Have you read your contract lately? The city can promote any one of the top five candidates, not necessarily the one that scored the highest on one portion of the testing. Good luck getting Angott to admit having said what you've alledged or getting any of the command officers to say that Harshberger only promoted Davis to save his job. Besides all of that....what makes you the better candidate...good luck proving that.
truth1
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 8:49 p.m.
Zulu: I think you are misinterpreting what I am saying. The article make it seems that the promotion of Davis was needed to diversify the department. What I was saying was how does promoting one more black officer to sgt. makes the department more diverse when there is only a total of three blacks in the entire department. I think there should be many more than three and as many sgts or higher rank in the department if they pass the process like Davis did.
Mike D.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 8:26 p.m.
I'm so glad that anonymous posters can fill us in on all the facts missing from the original piece of "journalism." Idiocracy!
KeepingItReal
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 7:27 p.m.
Truth1: Why do you feel that since there are three blacks in a 40plus department, why do you feel that its ok to limit black to the number of supervisory positions they can aspire to. There goes your quota limit.
snapshot
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 4:01 p.m.
Don't they have laws against frivilous lawsuits in Michigan? This Jim Fett seems to be involved in all these off the wall suits involving civil servants.
truth1
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 3:49 p.m.
justlife, you are welcome. All information needs to be put out. The article makes it seems that a black supervisor was needed in the department, but there was already one black sergeant. There are only 3 blacks in the entire 40plus department, i dont think two NEEDED to be sgts.
justlife
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 3:02 p.m.
Thank you truth1 for giving us additional information for Davis, so now we have data for both parties. Discrimination is nothing new, and as I indicated before, many discrimination suits have been filed by African Americans, and most of them have not been successful. Overton has a right to file his suit. However, justification why one candidate was hired over another is documented usually before the decision is made to hire.
Mumbambu, Esq.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:51 p.m.
Hey "ZULU". If YOU'D actually check... I never said anything about your spelling. It was someone else.
treetowncartel
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:39 p.m.
The spelling issue is a moot point, that post is no longer featured. And who really cares, the commenters are just that, of course there are going to be some grammatical and spelling errors. If the ciIy has a valid defense it will be raised and they will prevail. Putting Davis in the position might have been a foregone conclusion, that doesn't necesssarily mean discrimination took place. The lawyer will find out the source for Angott's statement and it will all come down to a credibility issue if that person denies it..
KeepingItReal
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:26 p.m.
"Mumbambu", I'm so sorry that I misspelled a couple words in my statement. It really points to my ignorance and distracts from the comments that I made. And "Clean Up," before you challenge anyone in the area of spelling, I suggest that you do a self check first.
15crown00
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:19 p.m.
BOTTOM LINE This is a case of YPD being politically correct.Now the city may have to pay for it.We can only hope.
Mumbambu, Esq.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:18 p.m.
Thanks truth. Now, after being informed by your post, we clearly know everything!
truth1
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 2:02 p.m.
It is amazing to me that people here are passing judgment that Overton is a victim solely on the fact that he filed a lawsuit. Everyone is getting only his side of the story and not all the facts. Being a friend of Davis I know what is not being told is that Overton may have scored highest on the written portion of the process, but Davis scored the highest on the assessment part where other administrators chose who they felt was the best person base on knowledge, ideas and decision making.(isnt that where number#1 should count). Not to mention prior to being promoted Davis was doing the job as an acting Sgt with no problems. What also is not being said is that Davis is a firearm and radar instructor with over 20yrs of police experience to Overtons 10yrs and as far as community work he was a school officer for years and helped run a Cub Scout pack for their department. Davis also passed the promotion process once before and was passed over for a white officer, so should he have filed a lawsuit for discrimination? What is funny though is that when it talks about it being a promotion based on diversity so why is it that in the last five years the Ypsilanti Police Department has hired somewhere between 10-15 officers and NONE where black males or black females. So if the issue of diversity was such a main concern, why was it not addressed when it came to the hiring process? To me this sounds like the crying of a spoiled man that didnt get his way and now wants to strong arm the City of Ypsilanti into giving him what he wants. So people before you decide to pass judgment know all the information.
Mumbambu, Esq.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 1:15 p.m.
Sendhil Mullainathan? With a name like that it sounds like he was just looking for an excuse...NOT. See how flawed and ridiculous the name game argument sounds when you flip it around?
Larry Kestenbaum
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 12:44 p.m.
If you think that job discrimination against minorities is over, think again: The University of Chicago's Marianne Bertrand and MIT's Sendhil Mullainathan, however, appeared to find that a black-sounding name can be an impediment, in another recent NBER paper entitled "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal?" The authors took the content of 500 real resumes off online job boards and then evaluated them, as objectively as possible, for quality, using such factors as education and experience. Then they replaced the names with made-up names picked to "sound white" or "sound black" and responded to 1,300 job ads in The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune last year.... White names got about one callback per 10 resumes; black names got one per 15. Carries and Kristens had call-back rates of more than 13 percent, but Aisha, Keisha and Tamika got 2.2 percent, 3.8 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. And having a higher quality resume, featuring more skills and experience, made a white-sounding name 30 percent more likely to elicit a callback, but only 9 percent more likely for black-sounding names. Even employers who specified "equal opportunity employer" showed bias, leading Mullainathan to suggest companies serious about diversity must take steps to confront even unconscious biases - for instance, by not looking at names when first evaluating a resume. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/29/national/main575685.shtml
nekkidfish
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 12:18 p.m.
If I'm not mistaken Sgt Davis has roughly 22yrs as a police officer. He came to Ypsilanti from Detroit close to 20yrs ago. I'm not sure if the numbers are correct. I also know that he has taken the Sgt.s test several times and was passed over in favor of candidates, most of them white, when the administration had a favored canidate picked for the position. Same thing happened to female officers.
justbeingme
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 12:01 p.m.
Before passing judgement I would like to see what qualifications the black officer has. I realize that lawsuits are one sided and what is not listed is the credentials of Davis. It states that Overton scored first on one portion but second on the other I wonder if Davis was the one that scored the highest on the second portion and second on the written. It lists that Overton has 10 years on the job I would like to know how long Davis has on the job. I see that this is big news in Ypsilanti I wonder if the suit is unfounded or dropped by the Judge because it has not merit if that is the case then will that get as much publicity????
uawisok
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 11:19 a.m.
Higher test scores I hope is not the only criteria used as deciding promotions...book smart and street dumb scares me!!
cleanup
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 10:20 a.m.
In the quote from Blackhorse 2 that is prominently featured on the home page, is there any possibility that the word 'education' could be spelled correctly in this post? In Blackhorse's post, 'preferential' and 'discrimination' are also spelled incorrectly but they are not part of the quote on the home page. Just sayin'...
quitoslady
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:44 a.m.
That is kind of weird as the Ypsilanti Police Department is known to discriminate against black officers. Several officers quit because of the situation they were dealing with.
Truthisfree
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:32 a.m.
annarborfan, BE REAL. There are no absolutes. Because the attorney for the plaintiff and the news reporter said that the other person was not qualified, you believe it. You wanna buy some ocean front property in Wyandotte? The bottom line is the attorney and the plaintiff are viewing things from their side. They do not have access to the records and scores for the other candidates for the position. You don't know how they scored in other areas. You can only speculate. Ann Arbor is supposed to be home of intellectuals but there are a lot of doofs that walk the streets and sound off on message boards.
Mumbambu, Esq.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:26 a.m.
...and in the same way @ annarborfan. How do we know Officer Overton was the most qualified? Based on one comment on a posting board? Your grouping of black people together isn't approprite either. With respect to this article Zulu, is the only one screaming about fairness.
Mumbambu, Esq.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:19 a.m.
Zulu... Once again you've come up with arguments totally irrelevant to the story just so you can talk about your frustraion with whites. We whites, of course, love it when we are all grouped together! "...if you are opposed to affirmative action, then work toward creating a just society where discriminaiton is not an issue." It sounds like that is exactly what is trying to be accomplished in this case.
annarborfan
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:11 a.m.
The best person for the job should always be hired - in this case the white man is obviously qualified and deserving of this promotion. I'm tired of black people screaming about unfairness. If you work as hard you too may be deserving.
annarborfan
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:09 a.m.
The best person for the job should always be hired - in this case the white man is obviously qualified and deserving of this promotion. I'm tired of black people screaming about unfairness. If you work as hard you too may be deserving.
tracyann
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9:02 a.m.
So please tell me what more we have to do to make "amends" for the sins of my fathers? Discrimination is discrimination whether it's against black, white, or whatever else. If you're promoting someone to a higher position based solely on skin color, it's discrimination. So, next time a black complains about perceived injustices they've encountered should someone say to them "stop your crying" and "stop your bellyaching"? Somehow I don't think that would go over so well.
justlife
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 9 a.m.
Law suits have been filed many times regarding discrimination, what usually occurs is there is justification why one person is chosen over another person. Whether it's fair or not, Life is not fair. However, there is a degree of qualifications both Overton and Davis had to achieve. Example to qualify for the position in question you had to reach a score between 1-5, both candidates fell in between 1-5, so they both met the qualifications. What then needed to be looked at, is do we have a diverse population of law enforcement officers at all levels to represent the population we are serving, if the answer was "NO" which I'm certain it was, let's select the person who is qualified, but will also give us a more diverse group of people to work in this particular field. White people absolutely are represented in every field of work they choose, African Americans are not. That's a fact. Check out if all those who commented that Harshberger did what he had to do, are not white males, is that a fair assessment? Overton has a right to file his discrimination suit, but if it ends the way most of the discrimination suits that have been filed by African Americans for the same thing, he won't win.
darknyt
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 8:15 a.m.
Besides once you sue your employer, things are just never the same. Consider becoming a free agent. Its all about marketing!
darknyt
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 8:09 a.m.
This is something that has been going on for years just reverse from this situation. We can whine and cry about it, or just support the system that we all helped to create. Life is not fair but we must move on. Maybe there looking for book smart and street smarts.
KeepingItReal
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 8:04 a.m.
For centuries, whites were given preferential treatment over blacks when it came to jobs, educaiton, economics and other societal benefits and perks. While I am not necessarily a proponent of affirmative action, simply because I believe that blacks were the least to benefit from it, I have no sympathy when whites are confronted with what they perceive as discrimination. Whites are still given prefrential treatment. All you have to do is look at construction sites around this county. Rarely do you see more than one black, if any on these crews, yet you will find that quite a few women who are employed by these construction firms. Same in any other arena other than some professional sports (just look around you). So, stop your crying and if you are opposed to affirmative action, then work toward creating a just society where discriminaiton is not an issue. Otherwise, stop your bellyaching.
Blackhorse2
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 7:37 a.m.
What a shame that these black officers are given promotions only because of their skin color. Are they not able to get promoted on merit?
fosho09
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 7:36 a.m.
So...what do we tell our children (all colors)? That you don't have to work hard because it won't matter in the end (white kids)...or you don't have to work hard because you'll still win in the end (black kids). Either way...it's not a good lesson.
dading dont delete me bro
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 7:26 a.m.
officer overton is an excellant officer. it's too bad this garbage still occurs. i hope this doesn't effect deridder's reputation either. officer davis isn't the most motivated officer around the department...
jondhall
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 6:48 a.m.
It was only a matter of time!
HappySenior
Fri, Oct 23, 2009 : 5:54 a.m.
I thought affirmative action ended in Michigan. Why is this not a case of affirmative action if "administration wanted a black supervisor." Is this a case of affirmative action being renamed as a push for diversity?