Date: Fri 06-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Harold-Evans-discrimination

Full Text:

Harold Evans' Discrimination Case Reflects A Dream Left Unfulfilled

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Ever since he was 15 and a junior at the Wooster School in Danbury, Harold F.

Evans, Jr, 39, knew he wanted to be a police officer.

The son of two Fairfield Hills Hospital employees, he changed his focus from

biology to sociology and joined a Police Explorer unit sponsored by the

Danbury Police Department.

"During my senior year at Wooster, I did six weeks of independent study with

the Danbury police. It was a pivotal point in my life," he said.

He graduated from The American University in Washington, DC, in 1980 with a

bachelor of science in administration of justice. Two months later he was

sworn in as a Newtown police officer by then town clerk Mae Schmidle. Within

five years he became a state trooper.

Last July, 11 years after Harold Evans resigned from the state police under

pressure, US District Judge Constance Baker Motley in New York ruled that the

former trooper was the victim of discrimination by the Connecticut State

Police. On May 12 Judge Motley awarded Mr Evans $861,073 - roughly $772,000

for back pay and interest and $89,000 for attorneys' fees.

"It has been a long time," Mr Evans reflected this week. "I've been through

three governors - O'Neill, Weicker and Rowland - two attorneys general -

Lieberman and Blumenthal - and three state police commissioners - Forst,

Cioffi and Kirschner - waiting for a decision."

Appeal Expected

The case isn't over yet. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he plans to

appeal both the decision and the damages award.

"I'm just in a holding pattern now," Mr Evans said. "I miss being a police

officer very much. But as it stands now, it would be very difficult for me to

go back to being a policeman. At one time I was honed to a razor's edge. Now

that edge has become dulled because I've been away from it for so long."

A lifelong Bethel resident, Harold Evans has been a member of the Newtown

Volunteer Ambulance Corps since 1982. During the week he works as assistant

director of security for Le Parker Meridien hotel in New York City; on

Saturdays he sells cars at Amaral Motors in Newtown.

There have been a string of jobs to make ends meet since he left the state

police and got married four years later. He and his wife, Heidi, have four

children: two teenagers from Mrs Evans' first marriage, plus a son, 6, and a

daughter, 3.

"After I became unemployed it was difficult to find work," Mr Evans said. "I

was turned down for other police jobs - and even for security jobs - so I did

all kinds of things. I drove limos until we opened our first I Can't Believe

It's Yogurt store [in the Stony Hill section of Bethel] in October 1987. We

also had one at the Danbury Square Mall for two years until it folded.

"I went to Stew Leonard's for the opening of the Danbury store in August 1991

and was there until February 1992, then for 13 months I sold cars at Brewster

Ford [in Brewster, N.Y.]"

For three years - from June 1993 to July 1996 - he was security supervisor at

the Danbury Hilton. He was then hired by Le Parker Meridien to help supervise

a staff of 22.

"[Thursday] July 4 was my last day of work at the Hilton," he said. "On July 5

I took my wife and my mother to the Candlewood Playhouse. Saturday I went to

work at Amaral's and two hours later my wife called to tell me that my mother

was dead. She died a week before the judge announced her decision, but I

believe she always knew in her heart that I would win."

Police Accused Of Bias

In his complaint against the state police, Harold Evans contended he was the

victim of a backlash from white officers who resented a 1982 court order

forcing the agency to hire more minorities.

In her July decision, Judge Motley said the state police have a history of

failing to hire and keep people of color as troopers. She said five of nine

black trainees in the same class as Harold Evans - the first class hired after

the class action suit - did not finish probationary periods. On the other

hand, she found that all but one of about 50 white officers from the class of

1985 had full trooper status.

Harold Evans had a strong academic record at the state police academy,

graduating 17th in his class of 52 with an 89.5 average. But once he was on

the job, his supervisors claimed he was poor at writing reports and in the

performance of his job. They also said he made a racist remark, referring to a

suspect as "one dumb guinea."

Judge Motley said, however, officers also testified that Mr Evans was

qualified for the job, even though they believed he did not put forth his best

effort. Mr Evans was held to a higher standard than his white colleagues, she

said, adding the state's final reason for forcing his resignation, "that he

had an `attitude of indifference,' was, in effect, a euphemism for `plaintiff

was black.'"

Judge Motley, a senior judge for the Southern District of New York, was

assigned the case because Connecticut needed help with its backlog of cases.

During the Evans case, she drafted - as an expert witness, who donated his

services - Burke Marshall, a Newtown resident and Yale Law School professor

emeritus who ran the US Justice Department's civil rights division as

solicitor general during the Kennedy Administration.

Judge Motley also held the Connecticut Department of Public Safety in contempt

of court in 1994 for failing to produce documents in the Evans case,

threatened the department with a $10,000-a-day fine and threatened to put in

jail former Supreme Court justice Nicholas A. Cioffe, who at that time was the

state commissioner of public safety. The state eventually complied with the

judge's order.

A Landmark Decision

Within weeks after he was forced to resign, Harold Evans filed a complaint

with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, then with the Equal

Employment Opportunities Commission. When he received a notice of right to sue

in December 1989, he tried to find a lawyer to represent him.

"Three different labor attorneys in Connecticut declined [to represent me],"

Mr Evans said. "Then I found William M. Laviano of Laviano & LoCascio in

Ridgefield agreed - with fire and brimstone - to take the case."

Mr Laviano said Judge Morley's decision is a "landmark" opinion that will help

end discrimination in police forces.

"It shows that the federal courts won't tolerate racial discrimination in

state police agencies. The opinion was very fact-based, made by a judge, not a

jury, so I do not expect it to be overturned on appeal," he said. "It's the

largest award in state police employment history and possibly the largest

among all state employees."

Atty Laviano also said he was "shocked" at the way Attorney General Richard

Blumenthal has handled the case.

"We offered to settle six years ago for $75,000 and reinstatement [of Mr

Evans' job as a state trooper]," Mr Laviano said. "Now, in addition to the

$861,000, there will be 10 percent interest - $86,000 a year - during the

appeal, which I expect will take about two years. This is taxpayer money and

is in addition to what it is costing Blumenthal to defend this case. I'd much

rather see the attorney general defending equality rather than racial

discrimination."

If the state does file an appeal, the case will be heard in the Second US

Circuit Court in New York City. Meanwhile, Harold Evans boards a train every

day for a commute into the city.

"The security department [at Le Parker Meridien] has a full range of security

services similar to those of police departments and has an operating budget

equal to most local police departments," he said. "But it does mean that I am

away from home 12 to 14 hours a day."

The lack of available time forced him to resign his position as unit

commissioner for the Scatacook District of the Fairfield County Council of the

Boy Scouts of America. He takes pleasure, however, in recalling that eight

youths who were under his command while he was associate adviser/training

coordinator for law enforcement at Explorer Post No 33 of the Danbury Police

Department have gone on to become police officers.

"I'd also like to run for the [Bethel] police commission, but the hours I work

now - 3 to 11 pm - don't make it possible," he said. "There are still people

in town who would like me to go back to being a police officer, but I don't

think that will happen. There have been a lot of changes in policing over the

past ten years and I don't think it's something I could just step back into

after all this time."

According to the public information office of the Connecticut Department of

Public Safety, the 968 sworn members of the state police now include 774 white

males, 59 white females, 71 black males, 4 black females, 55 Hispanic males

and 5 other minority group members.