The Associated Press
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - A fired police officer has won $200,000 in a lawsuit that claimed the Police Department fired her a month into the job because it does not give women a fair shake.
The department said Erin Chadick was not good enough with a handgun. Chadick’s lawyer argued the firing was part of a departmental climate of discrimination against women. She was fired in December 2001, as she prepared to enter the state’s police academy.
Chadick said she passed her firearms tests twice out of 18 tries, but the department said regardless of whether she eventually passed, her performance was too poor overall.
“We really feel like it is a fair verdict, and our client is very happy,” Chadick’s attorney, Lauren Irwin, told The Telegraph of Nashua.
Chadick has no interest in working for Nashua police again, Irwin said.
During the trial, Chadick’s lawyers said former Police Chief Donald Gross created a climate against women. For instance, they said, a female officer had to leave the department after marrying a male officer.
The department allows male officers second chances for poor performance, and only dismisses them for misconduct, Irwin said.
During the trial, the city’s lawyer, Stephen Bennett, disputed the claim that the department would have hired Chadick only to then discriminate against her.
Because of her firearms performance, the department told Chadick she could move to dispatch and try to become an officer later, but she declined.