A Black firefighter filed a federal lawsuit alleging {that a} New Jersey fireplace division the place he works didn’t intervene and take quick motion after he suffered heinous racist harassment from certainly one of his colleagues.
Within the $25 million grievance filed by Patrick Thomas, he alleges that the Bloomfield Hearth Division by no means took steps to guard him from or self-discipline a white firefighter who repeatedly racially discriminated in opposition to him.
In accordance with the swimsuit, per Hearth Regulation Weblog, Bloomfield firefighter Walter Coffey made verbal and bodily references about hanging nooses to Thomas on two separate events.
The grievance alleges that even earlier than these incidents, Coffey had used the N-word on quite a few events “within the presence of African American members of the BFD to harass, intimidate, and as a method of informing minorities of their standing as inferior throughout the establishment.”
On Nov. 8, 2023, throughout a departmental coaching centered on rope and knot strategies, the swimsuit states that Coffey approached Thomas and stated, “Thomas, there’s a noose upstairs on the desk, did you see it?”
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Per week later, in the midst of a knot coaching session, the swimsuit states that Coffey tied a hangman’s noose and threw it towards Thomas whereas laughing and saying, “I would like you to determine what sort of knot that is.”
Thomas replied, “I do know precisely what that is, this can be a noose. That is what folks used to hold my ancestors from bushes. You assume that is humorous?”
The swimsuit states the incident “was meant to degrade and humiliate (Thomas) due to his race, leading to extreme emotional and psychological hurt.”
Surveillance footage obtained by WNBC from the firehouse corroborates the act, displaying Coffey tying the noose and throwing it towards Thomas in entrance of a number of different firefighters. The grievance states the incident occurred within the presence of their colleagues, supervisors, and the course teacher.
The incident made native information headlines after prosecutors criminally charged Coffey with bias intimidation in December 2023. He was admitted to a pre-trial intervention program that, upon completion, might outcome within the dismissal of these fees.
“I feel there ought to have been some jail time or slightly bit greater than two years’ probation, and if he does every thing proper in two years, he has no felony document,” Thomas just lately instructed WNBC. “It’s prefer it by no means even occurred.”
The Bloomfield Hearth Division launched an inside investigation into the noose incidents, in keeping with the swimsuit, however nothing panned out.
Company officers paused the investigation when Coffey was charged and resumed it in Could 2025. They interviewed each Coffey and Thomas, however the investigation has but to succeed in a conclusion, in keeping with Thomas’ swimsuit.
Coffey has been employed with the division since 2000, however city officers say he’s at present on unpaid suspension pending his termination.
Thomas sought an impartial scientific analysis in December 2023 after Coffey was charged to evaluate the extent of the psychological and emotional misery he suffered. The hearth company required him to make use of sick go away for the time he spent out of labor within the months after the incident.
In March 2024, Thomas filed a employees’ compensation declare that was denied, regardless of the assessments from a number of clinicians — each impartial and township-appointed — who identified him with psychological accidents associated to the incident, the swimsuit states.
One current analysis to find out whether or not he was match for obligation concluded that he was “unlikely to be restored to obligation in an inexpensive time frame.”
Township of Bloomfield Mayor Jenny Mundell launched a press release on Fb shortly after Thomas’s swimsuit was filed, reaffirming the city’s “zero tolerance stance” on racism:
“This is the reason upon studying of the November 2023 racial harassment incident involving a Bloomfield firefighter, the township took quick and decisive motion, promptly referring the incident to regulation enforcement. Moreover, the firefighter, Walter Coffey, was suspended with out pay and the authorized termination course of was initiated the identical day the conduct was reported. Walter Coffey stays on unpaid suspension and has not been permitted to return to obligation whereas the township finalizes the authorized strategy of terminating his employment. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Workplace performed an impartial investigation, in the end charging and indicting Walter Coffey for bias intimidation. This felony accountability reinforces what has been clear from the outset: racist conduct won’t be tolerated in Bloomfield.”
When the incidents occurred, there have been solely 4 Black firefighters among the many 80 firefighters employed with the Bloomfield Hearth Division.
Thomas now seeks a $25 million judgment for the “lack of liberty, emotional misery, humiliation, lack of property, prices and bills, and different damages and accidents.”
