Second Homewood police officer files lawsuit, alleges discrimination and racism

Former police dispatcher, Charity Howard, filed her second lawsuit in three years against the Homewood Police Department for allegedly violating her medical leave, not giving her an adequate place to breastfeed and retaliating against her for filing a complaint against the department due to her race on Feb. 10, 2022. 

Howard was one of two officers to file a lawsuit alleging racism on Feb. 10, the other being HPD officer Victor Sims II, who accused HPD of demoting him from the rank of detective to patrolman as a result of racism and discrimination.

While Howard was on medical leave due to a tumor being found on her spine, her supervisor, Steve Sparks, told her he wanted her to return to work before her designated leave time to give two other dispatchers non-emergent medical leave, the lawsuit alleges, with the two dispatchers both being Caucasian.

According to the lawsuit, Howard complained to Spark’s supervisor, Lt. Keith Peterson, about the alleged double-standard between African-American and Caucasian officers. Peterson, allegedly, didn’t deny the double standard and said he would look into it but Howard never heard anything back from him, per the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit also referenced another dispatcher who was allegedly police-escorted from the premises for asking to leave work due to illness despite Caucausian officers asking for leave with little to no consequence.

In May 2019, Howard filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint, and later, a lawsuit, against the department and was questioned about the complaint by a “representative of Homewood” in late July 2019, according to the lawsuit.

That previous lawsuit was dismissed by federal Judge Staci Cornelius in March 2021.

Howard complained again to police Chief Tim Ross and Internal Affairs Sgt. Doug Finch (now a lieutenant) in an email about how she was treated the previous week on Sept. 18, 2019, according to the lawsuit, but was allegedly met with accusations of “illicit social networking.” 

According to the lawsuit, Ross and Finch were referring to a video Howard posted on social media one to two years prior about breastfeeding, in turn causing her to be reprimanded by Ross. 

The lawsuit noted that Howard was on break and her badge was covered so she wouldn’t be identified as an employee of the police department or the City of Homewood. Comparisons were made in the lawsuit between how Howard was treated regarding her social media posts as opposed to Caucasian police officers and staff. . 

A few weeks after Howard was reprimanded, according to the lawsuit, Sparks posted a meme on Facebook “depicting an elderly Caucasian man holding a rather large handgun and a red ball cap reading ‘Right Wing Fanatic,’ captioned ‘Too Old to Fight, Too Slow to Run, I'll Just Shoot You and Be Done With It.’” The meme wasn’t taken down until half a year later., according to the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit also cited a meme Finch posted on Facebook in March 2020 in which the caption read, “WE USED TO STACK G**KS (an offensive term for someone of Filipino, Vietnamese or Korean descent) LIKE YOU FOUR DEEP IN KOREA. USED YOU FOR SANDBAGS.” The caption was a quote from the Clint Eastwood film, "Gran Torino."

According to the lawsuit, Finch was not reprimanded and the post “stayed live” for three years until a complaint made by Howard led to the video eventually being taken down. 

The lawsuit also referenced videos uploaded to social media by HPD officer Cpl. Jon Newland in June 2020, who posted what Howard called “incendiary, racism-laced, “rap” videos on social media.” According to the lawsuit, Newland was in uniform in at least one of his videos and “celebrated ‘Valhalla’ - Norse ‘heaven’ and a common White Supremacist trope; declared: ‘With a Rebel Yell I will prevail;’ pledged that, as one who wears ‘the black and blue,’ ‘Around your neck I flex this choke;’ and included the refrain:  “Empathy, that's what I feel, but I'm always ready for the kill.” 

Newland was given a three-day suspension and was demoted from the rank of corporal to officer by Ross after his videos were publicized by the media but wasn’t finalized until July 2020, according to the lawsuit. Newland is no longer with HPD.

In July 2020, Howard was fired, following a situation in which she made online comments during a Homewood vigil for George Floyd, per the lawsuit. Howard responded to a comment made by a Facebook commenter who said the attendants of the vigil were violating a “protest law,” according to the lawsuit, to which Howard responded, “What ‘protest law’ are they breaking? The right to freedom of assembly?” 

Howard also made online comments against Newland’s social media posts but, according to the lawsuit, were “restrained and positive.” 

At Howard’s termination hearing, Ross and Finch accused Howard of being uncooperative with her investigation into the incident and for not checking in with Finch during suspension which, per the lawsuit, she wasn’t required to. 

A Homewood Police spokesperson would not comment about the allegations in Sims' lawsuit. Sgt. John Carr with HPD said it is department policy not to issue comment on pending litigation. Carr sent copies of both the judge's dismissal of the older lawsuit, as well as the upholding of Howard's firing from the Jefferson County Personnel Board, which sided with HPD and found she had violated department policy.

In the report from the Personnel Board, the Police Department said Howard had violated department policy by using social media during her shift. They cited her "refusal" to cooperate with the investigation into her social media posts as the reason Peterson recommended she be terminated.

Howard, in her lawsuit, claimed she was not opposed to answering questions, but was opposed to talking with Finch, against whom she had previously filed a grievance.

The Homewood Star will continue to follow this story as it develops.