Lawsuit: KCK Police retaliated against minority employees seeking equal pay
A Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department employee filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming the department has a pattern of promoting white administrative workers ahead of minority employees.
The employee says in the suit that when her unit of civilian employees complained, the unit, which consisted of office assistants for the criminal investigations division, was penalized and ultimately disbanded. The unit was comprised of five women, four of whom were minorities, the suit said.
The employee, an African American woman named Evelyn Burdette, filed the lawsuit in an effort to keep her job while receiving the same opportunities as others, said her attorney Sarah Brown.
“What she’s looking for is justice and equal employment opportunity and sometimes the only way you can get this is by raising the specter in a public lawsuit and asking someone else to help you,” Brown said.
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Burdette and “all similarly situated employees.”
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, denied that Burdette was subject to illegal discrimination, harassment or retaliation.
“The Unified Government’s Human Resources policies strictly prohibit this behavior at all levels and in all places within the organization, and we look forward to the opportunity to vigorously defend this case in Court,” said Unified Government spokesman David Reno in a statement to The Star.
Former police chief Terry Ziegler, who is referenced in the complaint, said in an email to The Star that he could not comment.
Complaints and retaliation
In 2017, the suit said, Burdette and her coworkers began the process of requesting a desk audit because they believed they were paid significantly less than white administrative employees.
Before the group had completed the paperwork, however, their administrative coordinator told them that Ziegler, who had to approve the paperwork, was “livid” about the request.
“Shut it down. Don’t even try it; it’s indefinitely denied,” the suit says Ziegler said.
A month later the group submitted the request and it was subsequently denied. The women were told that the issue would be best resolved through contract negotiations.
Ziegler retired from the department last year.
After the request was denied, the suit said, administrative employees in the criminal investigations division were banned from taking breaks together, eating lunch together or walking together to the District Attorney’s office as they often did as a safety measure.
The one white employee in the unit was promoted to a position in animal control, the suit said.
The restrictions were removed when a new major took over the unit later in the year, the suit said, but they were reinstated when contract negotiations reached an impasse. Additionally, the suit said, job duties for the unit were reduced and detectives were banned from speaking with the women in the unit or entering their office.
In June and July of 2018, the suit says, members of the unit filed grievances with the department. Burdette and a coworker met with Ziegler to discuss the issues in August.
Weeks after the meeting, the suit said, the department placed hidden audio recorders and cameras in the unit’s office for an Internal Affairs investigation which Ziegler said was a criminal investigation.
The women were notified of the investigation in September and accused of “loitering, remaining idle or loafing while on duty, and disrespecting their supervisors,” the suit said.
The day after the women’s retaliation grievance was denied in November 2018, Burdette was fired. Her four co-workers were all suspended for varying lengths of time.
After they returned, the women were all moved out of the criminal investigations unit to the records unit and ordered not to have any contact with detectives.
As a result of this, the suit says, files are backlogged in the investigations unit, no one answers the phone, hearings have been continued and inactive cases are not being completed.
Burdette filed a grievance and returned to work in September 2019 after it was determined that she had been wrongfully terminated. She was placed in the records unit but eventually moved back to investigations after filing another grievance.
Throughout Burdette’s time working in the investigations unit, the suit said, white civilian employees were often promoted to positions that were never officially posted and were chosen for promotions ahead of minority employees with more experience. Despite performing similar work, the suit said, white administrative employees were paid nearly double what minority employees were paid.
Similar lawsuits alleging race or gender discrimination have been brought against the Kansas City, Kansas, police department.
Last year an officer filed a lawsuit alleging “rampant racism and sexism in the workplace” and unequal discipline applied to African American and female officers. Earlier in the year, a former cadet filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired after accusing a supervisor of sexual assault.
In late 2018, Lamonte McIntyre claimed in a lawsuit that a KCK detective coerced women into providing fabricated statements that led to his false conviction for murder.
