PDF: Dodds settlement agreement
The University of Tennessee is paying a collective $350,000 to three former UTC police officers in the wake of a jury verdict last year that said UTC's law enforcement department engages in reverse race discrimination.
Though two of the officers were fired last year in a high-profile instance of alcohol consumption on campus and providing alcohol to underage students, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga spokesman Chuck Cantrell confirmed that the possibility of more reverse race discrimination lawsuits was a factor in the payouts.
"Yes, there were threats of claims of reverse race discrimination," Mr. Cantrell said.
He denied, however, that the settlements were a result of former UTC officer Sean Shelton's win in April 2009 in Hamilton County Chancery Court.
"We're not acknowledging the validity of the (other officers') claims," Mr. Cantrell said of the settlements the school made with former officers Abner Miranda, Paul Dodds and Jeremy Morrison. "Every case is different."
While the university fired Mr. Dodds and Mr. Morrison, records show Mr. Miranda left the department voluntarily.
A jury awarded Mr. Shelton, who is white, $300,000 after hearing evidence that his black supervisors constantly harassed him and called him derogatory names such as "honky" and "white boy redneck" while he worked for the UTC police department in 2004.
Mr. Shelton claimed the department eventually fired him because he was white. Mr. Shelton's supervisor, Cpl. Rebecca Tolbert, admitted on the witness stand that "black people don't like white people."
Jury members said after the trial that the evidence outraged them.
"The judgment was our way of making a statement and bringing about change from the leadership down," said the jury forewoman, who did not want her name printed because she was afraid of retaliation. "No class of citizen should be protected over another class of citizen. Not in this day and time."
Chancellor Howell Peoples ultimately whittled Mr. Shelton's award down to $168,000, agreeing with UTC during the appeals process that the award had been too high. UTC eventually dropped the appeal. It solidified the settlements with the other officers in early December.
Mr. Cantrell would not discuss the specific allegations of reverse race discrimination that Mr. Miranda, Mr. Dodds and Mr. Morrison made. The settlement agreements forbid the former officers from discussing their grievances in public. If they make any "disparaging" remarks about UTC, they will be required to pay penalties to the school.
Attorneys with local law firm Burnette, Dobson and Pinchak, who represented all the former officers in their claims of reverse race discrimination, also are not allowed to speak about the settlements, according to the terms of the agreements.
Mr. Cantrell said in a statement via e-mail that the UTC Police Department is continuing to make changes to improve its image.
"We have made command changes, we have increased training, and we are trying to improve salaries to retain and attract the best officers available," he said.