Eight minority correctional officers in a Minnesota county prison filed a racial discrimination lawsuit, claiming they were prevented from guarding the former Minneapolis police officer accused of George Floyd’s death.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in a Minnesota district court and alleges that a superintendent of the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in St. Paul transferred black police officers to another floor when Derek Chauvin was arrested on charges of murder in May past.
The lawsuit says that police officers – who identify themselves as African-American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander and mixed-race – were “segregated and prevented from doing their job by the defendant just because of the color of his skin.”
Police also claim that Chauvin received special treatment from a white lieutenant.
“When Officer Chauvin arrived, they were prepared to do the work they had done every day up to that point, until Superintendent Lydon’s order prevented them from doing so,” said lawyer Lucas Kaster at a news conference Tuesday. market.
“The impact on our customers has been immense. They are deeply humiliated and distressed and the necessary bonds within the ADC’s high stress and pressure environment have been broken,” he added.
Chauvin was arrested on May 29 and charged with second-degree murder and wrongful death. Video shot days earlier, on May 25, showed him kneeling on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes, while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.
The suit says correctional officers were fulfilling their normal prison duties when they were told they would be transferred because of Chauvin’s arrival.
The suit states that Superintendent Steve Lydon ordered that all minority officers were not allowed to guard Chauvin, interact with him or even be on the 5th floor where Chauvin was being held.
The police were “extremely upset and offended” by the order, according to the action.
One of the plaintiffs, Devin Sullivan, regularly processes and registers high-level inmates. The lawsuit alleges he was in the middle of a search for Chauvin when Lydon told him to stop and replaced him with a white officer.
The suit also claims that two other police officers saw through security cameras that a white lieutenant “had special access” to Chauvin. The lieutenant had access to Chauvin’s cell unit, sat on his bed, patted him on the back “while he seemed to console him” and let Chauvin use a cell phone.
Several minority officials asked to speak to Lydon, who “denied being racist and defended his decision”.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office did not return a request for comment on Tuesday and Lydon could not be found in the numbers listed for him.
In June, claimants filed discriminatory actions with the state’s Human Rights Department. Kaster told the Star Tribune that the lawsuit never gained momentum, so the lawyers requested that it be closed so they could file a lawsuit.
The lawyer said at a news conference on Tuesday that his clients filed the lawsuit to try to hold Lydon and Ramsey County accountable “for the discrimination that occurred under his supervision”.
According to the Star Tribune, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office initially denied the officers’ allegations, but later acknowledged Lydon’s order and said the superintendent had been temporarily demoted while the department was conducting an internal investigation. It is not clear what the outcome of the investigation was.
In a statement given by Lydon during the investigation and provided by the sheriff’s office to the Star Tribune, the superintendent said he was trying to “protect and support” minority officials by protecting them from Chauvin.
Kaster said on Tuesday that Lydon’s explanation was never given to his clients and was only provided after the fact.
