April 5, 2001 (BROCKTON, Mass.) – A federal judge has dismissed a bias complaint against a Massachusetts police department, finding that police did not ignore a call from two women at a food market because they were white.
The women, a clerk and a shopper at Tedeschi’s in Brockton, dialed 911 in 1997 because they spotted three young men outside the store wearing hooded jackets. After a dispatcher refused to send help, the women were robbed at knifepoint.
Nancy Leedberg, the white police officer who took the call, was suspended for five days after the incident.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs plan to sue in state court, claiming negligence.