The primary Black police chief of a small Chicago suburb has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit after being fired one yr into the job as a consequence of considerations that got here up his first efficiency evaluation.
Jerel Jones, who took the helm of the Flossmoor Police Division in March 2023, filed the civil motion March 11 after he was terminated earlier within the month, claiming the Cook dinner County village engaged in a sample of racism to eliminate him.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to cowl what Jones ought to have been paid, together with his wage and advantages.
Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson introduced Jones’ firing on March 7, saying town was “parting methods” with Jones, nevertheless, she didn’t present particular causes for his removing, emphasizing that the matter regarding Jones was “strictly about efficiency.”
A whole lot of residents packed metropolis corridor final week to voice help for Jones when phrase of his potential dismissal as a consequence of job friction turned public.
In a press release, Nelson indicated that after 12 months, Jones had did not carry out satisfactorily within the place.
“When a pacesetter of a crucial division is just not assembly expectations, the ripple impact can adversely influence all the division, and the group, and even the neighborhood,” Nelson wrote.
Attorneys for Jones contested the dealing with of his dismissal, alleging that he was intentionally arrange for failure, whereas blasting the firing as an “act of race discrimination and retaliation.”
“People, that is race-based animus via and thru,” lawyer Cass Casper of the Disparti Legislation Group stated, based on CBS Information. “This can be a Black division head and never assembly as much as the expectations of a white administration as a result of he’s Black.”
At a information convention along with his attorneys on Monday, Jones stated that when he took the job final March, there was nothing in his contract about any particular size of employment, whereas noting that he was the one Black division head in Flossmoor on the time.
The authorized motion, whIch names the Village of Flossmoor and Village Supervisor Bridget Wachtel as defendants, claims Jones went to Nelson in October and complained that Wachtel was micromanaging his each transfer, and attempting to carry him “to a better normal of efficiency” than his white and Hispanic counterparts in different metropolis departments.
“Village Supervisor Wachtel was partaking him in overbearing scrutiny, micromanagement, baseless criticism, personally attacking criticisms, and usually holding him to an ordinary of efficiency that will be unachievable by anybody,” the lawsuit states.
Quickly, Jones’ complaints made it again to Wachtel, who responded “with a marketing campaign of retaliation culminating in his termination,” based on Jones’ lawyer.
“Wachtel imposed a master-slave dynamic between her and Jerel and, if he didn’t match himself into that anticipated dynamic, he couldn’t be Police Chief,” the grievance continues.
Protection attorneys redacted a good portion of the efficiency evaluations to keep away from releasing delicate details about ongoing investigations and policing methods.
Jones stated he typically confronted pointless criticism in his efficiency analysis from Wachtel, which reportedly centered on the way in which he talked.
“You don’t converse plainly or reply questions immediately,” Wachtel states in an excerpt from one of many efficiency evaluations cited within the lawsuit.
Casper recommended that Wachtel’s assertion on this specific occasion constituted racial discrimination.
“This can be a white administration complaining about how Black Chief Jones talks,” Casper stated. “There’s no bona fide criticism that he stated something inappropriate right here. This complete criticism from Village Supervisor Wachtel is concerning the method during which the chief talks.”
Notably, Jones and his authorized crew acknowledged that they’d withdraw the lawsuit if the village issued an apology.
“Deliver him again as police chief. Take away him from the marketing campaign of hyper-critical, race-based criticism that he endured, and provides him a good probability to be police chief – free from that double normal,” Casper stated.
Earlier than arriving in Flossmoor, Jones had a protracted profession with Macomb, Illinois, Police Division.
