Cop told to ‘tone down your gayness’ will get $10.25 million in Missouri lawsuit
A county in Missouri has agreed to pay a gay police lieutenant $10.25 million after he was allegedly told to “tone down [his] gayness” to be promoted.
Keith Wildhaber filed a lawsuit against St. Louis County in 2017 alleging the police department had passed him over for promotions because of his sexual orientation, CNN reported.
The lawsuit detailed a 2014 exchange between Wildhaber — who was a sergeant at the time applying to be promoted to lieutenant — and a member of the county’s board of police commissioners who allegedly told Wildhaber that if he ever wanted to get a promotion he “should tone down [his] gayness,” according to the outlet.
Wildhaber didn’t get the promotion. By 2016, he’d been passed over for promotion 23 times, KSDK reported.
He filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the department which resulted in an almost $20 million jury verdict in October, according to the outlet.
A $10.25 million settlement was finalized on Feb. 10 which allows Wildhaber to keep more of the money. He’ll receive about $6.5 million when it’s all said and done, the rest going to his lawyers, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
He was also promoted to lieutenant in December and placed in charge of a new unit for diversity and inclusion, the Associated Press reported.
“I’ve got 26 years in,” he told the Post-Dispatch. “I want to finish my career on my terms.”
The county agreed to pay Wildhaber $7 million within 60 days and the final $3.25 million by Jan. 31, 2021, according to the Post-Dispatch. Wildhaber told the outlet he has plans to take care of his mother, brother and sister.
“This lawsuit acknowledges what Lt. Wildhaber survived in the police department and lets us move forward as a county,” County Executive Sam Page said on Monday, according to the Associated Press. “I think it’s important to recognize that this sends a message to everyone in county government and to all of our employers in the St. Louis region, that discrimination will not be tolerated.”