Officer wins suit against WSU

A Washington State University police officer was awarded $96,000 in back pay and benefits this week in a federal lawsuit alleging the university fired him in retaliation for speaking out about civil rights issues.

The jury reached its verdict Monday afternoon in federal court in Spokane in the lawsuit brought by Bryan Jacobson, a black officer who’s been involved in a long-running struggle with his bosses in the WSU department.

WSU Police, in justifying Jacobson’s 2004 firing, claimed that he had improperly used a university credit card. Jacobson claimed in his lawsuit that his use of the card was common among university employees and that he repaid all charges to the university; a state appeals board later reinstated him.

“The real reason they fired him is all the complaints he made in the past about racial discrimination,” said Patrick Kirby, Jacobson’s attorney. “This is a public agency that’s breaking civil rights laws, and I think that’s very, very troublesome.”

Jerry Cartwright, chief of the torts section of Spokane’s attorney general’s office, which represented WSU in the case, said that the amount of the award wasn’t shocking, and his attorneys were pleased that the jury chose not to award damages in two categories: pain and suffering, and future damages.

“Neither I nor the legal team were really surprised by the verdict,” he said.

Jacobson began working for the WSU Police Department in 1990. In 2000, he sued the department, alleging racial discrimination, and the university settled that suit in 2001. Part of that settlement required the department to hold diversity training that Jacobson alleges never occurred.

The state has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict. Kirby said he’s forwarding information from the case to criminal prosecutors for them to consider possible action.