With decades of experience behind him, high test scores, and positive performance reviews, St. Louis County Police Department Sgt. Keith Wildhaber applied for a promotion to lieutenant in 2014. Did he get it? No. But the Missouri officer not getting the promotion isn’t, in itself, the issue. The issue is that he allegedly didn’t get it because of his “gayness.”
While that scenario sounds like something out of a human resources training video, it’s very much a real case. So real, in fact, that Widhaber filed a discrimination lawsuit against St. Louis County in 2017. On Friday, a jury awarded him nearly $20 million. This number breaks down to $1.9 million in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages. From there, an additional $999,000 and $7 million were added to the aforementioned actual and punitive damages.
“The command staff has a problem with your sexuality,” John Saracino, who was at the time a member of the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners allegedly told Wildhaber in 2014. “If you ever want to see a white shirt [get a promotion], you should tone down your gayness.” Saracino denies he ever said that.
The trial, which lasted about one week, encompassed more than just this single example. Wildhaber was passed over for promotions a whopping 23 times, as reported by the Post-Dispatch. Wildhaber, who served in the Army before joining the force, rose through the police ranks with a clean record and positive performance reviews. But it became evident, he could only rise so far. Eventually, a stalled promotion wasn’t the only problem, according to the suit.
The lawsuit described the police department as having a retaliatory, anti-LGBTQ culture. One example of retaliation? In 2016, Wildhaber filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights over the promotion issue.
The retaliation for that, the suit alleges, came in the form of being transferred to a precinct about 30 miles from his home. There, he was assigned to work the night shift. Before he filed the complaint, he’d been working the day shift much closer to home, according to the suit.
After that transfer, Wildhaber filed a second charge of discrimination, alleging he was retaliated against because of the original complaint.
While jurors did rule in favor of Wildhaber, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and other department members denied these allegations.
And about that big award number? “We wanted to send a message,” the jury foreman, identified as Juror number four, said as reported by the Post-Dispatch. “If you discriminate you are going to pay a big price. … You can’t defend the indefensible.”
Now, the department is talking about change. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page shared a statement on Twitter on Sunday, promising a big overhaul of the police board.
Here’s that full statement:
In a statement to The Washington Post on Monday, the county’s police union says it has “a long history of fighting for equality for all of our members.”