Jury Rejects Female Police Officer’s Sex Discrimination Claim

Tom Weiler was part of a team of lawyers who successfully defended five suburban supervisory police officers against claims of harassment and discrimination by a female probationary police officer. The plaintiff claimed that she was discriminated against when her employment as an officer was terminated before her probationary period ended. The case was tried in federal court before Judge Paul Plunkett.

The plaintiff had claimed that she was harassed and discriminated against when she was over-scrutinized on patrol and in report writing, she was sent on too many calls in a row, her backup was called off, and she was told not to associate with certain officers including one married officer with whom she was suspected of having an affair. The defense argued that plaintiff was subsequently terminated because she lied to her commanding officer during an internal investigation regarding an off-duty incident in which she had called 911 from her apartment concerning a subject who would not leave (later determined to be the married officer who was part of a group of officers informally known as the “Bad Boys”).