(DALLAS) -- A federal commission has determined that a former Dallas police officer with a lengthy disciplinary record was wrongly fired in March 1999 and also stated that there is evidence that the Dallas Police Department has discriminated against black officers.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a three-page determination that Harold Cornish was discharged in retaliation for making requests for police disciplinary records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr. Cornish, 39, who has appealed to the city manager to be reinstated, called the ruling a dream come true.
“All the discipline against me was retaliatory,” he said on Nov. 21. “They were going to try to show me up and destroy my credibility.”
Police officials said the discrimination allegations are against a previous leadership.
“All of this relates to a prior administration,” said Sgt. Hollis Edwards, a department spokesman. “The current administration is committed to fair and impartial treatment for all of its employees.”
Mr. Cornish, who is black, was fired twice in the late 1980s and reinstated both times under civil appeals.
He was fired again in March 1999 by retired Police Chief Ben Click for 13 violations of the department’s code of conduct and general orders.
At the time of his most recent dismissal, police officials strongly denied that race was a factor in Mr. Cornish’s termination.
Sgt. Jim Chandler, then spokesman for the department, pointed to a lengthy record of improper behavior.
The EEOC ruling, dated Nov. 17 and received by the city Nov. 20, states that discipline for alleged violations of police policy began at the same time that Mr. Cornish began making requests for disciplinary records as part of a complaint by black officers alleging disparate treatment within the department.
The ruling also states that the department has given black officers harsher discipline than nonblack officers who have violated similar policies.
If the city and Mr. Cornish are not able to reach a settlement, the EEOC will refer the matter to the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue the city for damages.
The Justice Department announced in August 1999 that it is investigating charges that the department has ordered tougher punishments for black officers.
Members of the predominantly black Texas Peace Officers Association praised the ruling Tuesday.
“It’s a victory for Harold Cornish, and it’s a victory for the class of blacks on the Police Department,” said Sgt. Lee Bush, a former vice president of the association. “The city has ignored the problem for years, but like anything else, this has come to the surface.”
Sgt. Bush, who was awarded more than $300,000 from the city after his discrimination allegations against the city, and Sgt. Thomas Glover, president of the association, said they expected Mr. Cornish to be rehired.
Many of the allegations stem from a December 1997 DeSoto car accident involving Mr. Cornish’s wife, police officials said. Mr. Cornish allegedly tried to get a DeSoto officer to change the accident report, police said, then tried to obtain criminal history information about the officer from a state trooper.
Other sustained violations included sleeping on duty and a Feb. 22, 1998, incident in which he allegedly used excessive force. Then assigned to the city auto pound, Mr. Cornish was accused of pulling a woman’s hair after she refused to move her car.
In July, Mr. Cornish was acquitted on a charge of official oppression stemming from the hair-pulling incident. He frequently alleged patterns of racism in the department. A federal discrimination suit that he and five other black officers filed in 1988 was dismissed in 1993 for lack of evidence.
(iSyndicate; The Dallas Morning News; Nov. 22, 2000) Terms and Conditions: Copyright( 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.