By Henry K. Lee
The San Francisco Chronicle
CONCORD, Calif. — The highest-ranking woman in the Concord Police Department has sued the city, saying she is being harassed and discriminated against because of her gender.
Lt. Robin Heinemann, a 21-year department veteran, said in her suit in Contra Costa County Superior Court that she and other female officers are powerless in a “de facto hierarchy” that is based upon a “presumption of male supremacy.”
Concord’s Police Department is “rife with overt hostility and disparate treatment toward female officers,” said the suit, which Heineman filed Wednesday.
Heinemann was promoted to lieutenant in 2001, two years after the city paid $1.25 million to settle a previous sexual-discrimination lawsuit in which she and other current or former female officers were plaintiffs.
Nevertheless, “she has not been permitted to exercise the powers and privileges of her rank to the same extent as male supervisors,” the suit said.
Instead, Heinemann was the target of “trumped-up” internal-affairs investigations alleging she was dishonest and disrespectful to superiors, while male officers who were accused of wrongdoing went unpunished, especially if they were friends of Chief David Livingston and Capt. Dan Siri, the suit said.
Siri forced Heinemann to write unnecessary memos describing what she would do to carry out certain assignments, which she found demeaning because no male officers were asked to prepare such memos, the suit said.
If Heinemann is being treated this way, “there is really cause for great concern as to how all police officers are treated in this department,” said her attorney, Stan Casper of Walnut Creek.
The suit seeks unspecified damages and names the city, Siri and Livingston as defendants. The city has not responded to the suit in court.
Livingston is running to replace Warren Rupf as Contra Costa County’s sheriff in 2011. Rupf, who is retiring, has endorsed him.
The complaint is the latest in a spate of discrimination lawsuits filed against the city.
In July, Officer Lisa Capocci filed a sexual-harassment suit claiming she had been retaliated against for complaining about comments made by a supervisor, including “I love you” messages on her police-cruiser computer. Her suit is pending.
Copyright 2009 San Francisco Chronicle