By Roma Khanna, The Houston Chronicle
A jury awarded the former president of a black deputies’ organization $99,999 Monday after it found discrimination played a role in his February 2001 termination from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.
Robert Amboree, who spent 18 years as a deputy, argued that he was fired in retaliation for speaking out on behalf of deputies through his post as president of the Afro-American Sheriff’s Deputy League.
During the weeklong trial, Amboree told jurors that he helped black deputies file complaints after several incidents, including one in which a supervisor called several of them “monkeys.”
“The jurors all saw through the smoke screen and that there were no facts, no credible evidence, for them to fire me,” Amboree said after hearing the verdict. “It was just David versus Goliath and the truth won.”
The jury in state District Judge Bruce Oakley’s court voted 10-2 to award Amboree $53,733 in back pay and $46,266 in damages after deliberating for more than eight hours since Friday.
Assistant County Attorney Jay Siskind had argued that Amboree’s termination was justified because of his disciplinary record, which included 14 citations as far back as 1983 for things such as sleeping on the job.
Siskind emphasized an incident in which Amboree, who worked at a county jail, failed to open the door quickly to a cell after a fight between inmates.
“He was putting other deputies in danger,” Siskind said.