Jury finds Texas Department of Public Safety liable for racial discrimination against two troopers

An Austin jury has found the Texas Department of Public Safety liable for racial harassment of two of its officers and awarded them nearly $1.7 million in damages.

The suit, filed in 2020, alleged that the officers faced years of racial discrimination, including not being promoted, and that the agency failed to properly investigate their concerns.

Lawyers for the state had argued in court filings that there were legitimate reasons why the plaintiffs, who are Black, did not rise professionally in the agency, and that they did not meet the legal standard of proof showing they faced a hostile working environment.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Leonard Mungo said this week that the jury’s decision “validates” his clients’ claims that the agency “has and still harbors a racially hostile work environment.”

“As one of their retired captains testified to at trial, the TXDPS is like a dysfunctional family,” said Mungo, who also serves as general counsel for the National Black State Troopers Coalition. “This should be a clarion call for the state legislators and the governor to gut out the poison of institutional racism that is flourishing in that agency.”

https://www.expressnews.com/politics/texas/article/dps-troopers-discriminat-21329044.php