African Americans booted from city sheriffs’ class win settlement

about 6 years in NY Daily

The city has settled a federal discrimination suit brought by two black men and a black woman who claim biased psychological screening kept them from becoming city sheriffs, officials said Saturday.

Barry Brown, Sean Harris and Tara Johnson will each receive more than $200,000 in compensation for being drummed out of a city sheriffs’ class in 2013.

Brown — a Marine Corps veteran — and Harris will each receive $220,000. Johnson, who ultimately got a job in another city agency, will receive $205,000, their attorney Eric Sanders said.

The trio was among five black candidates who failed a psychological exam and were booted from the class, according to the suit. The five were the only African-Americans in the class.

The 10 other members of Brown's academy class — which included seven white candidates, two Hispanic candidates and one Asian-American candidate — ended up as deputy sheriffs.

Despite the findings of the psychological examiners, Sanders said, four of the five terminated black candidates found law enforcement jobs elsewhere — one as a New Jersey state trooper.

“Although plaintiffs’ didn’t ultimately become Deputy Sheriffs, they have fulfilled the primary purpose of filing these federal lawsuits, which was to shed light on the fundamental unfairness of the psychological evaluation during the application and review process for African-Americans,” Sanders said Saturday.

“With these settlements, plaintiffs are hopeful that the NYPD and the Department of Finance will significantly change the psychological evaluation.”

Sheriffs — who work for the city Department of Finance — enforce court orders, such as evictions and property seizures. They also handle tax and license enforcement, and have arrest powers.

Brown, 44, was looking forward to becoming a sheriff.

He passed the written and physical exams — but his plans went off the rails when he took the psychological exam, which was run by the NYPD.

The psychological examiner said Brown had trouble coping, suffered from stress, lacked interpersonal skills and was unsuited for the job, according to the suit.

“The whole process was very strange,” Brown told the Daily News in March.

Brown hired a psychologist who said he could handle the sheriff’s job, but the city wouldn’t give him a second chance, the lawsuit said.

City lawyers moved to dismiss the suit. But Brooklyn federal Judge Nina Gershon ruled there was enough proof to move the case forward — including the fact that all five black candidates were kicked out.

“(The) settlement was in the best interest of all parties,” a spokesman for the city Law Department said. “The city is committed to the fair and equitable administration of the exams it administers.”

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