Corrections Officer Sues County, 2 Officers

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A county correctional officer has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Prince George's County and two individual officers, claiming 12 counts of race discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment.

On March 9, correctional officer Keisha Hudson filed a formal complaint of racial discrimination in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County. The lawsuit names Prince George's County, Captain Avery Johnson and Sergeant Tamara Johnson as defendants, stated Lars Kroner, an attorney with Justly Prudent representing Hudson.

According to the filing, Hudson submitted a formal discrimination and harassment complaint on June 4, 2025, after a fellow officer disclosed that Johnson's negative treatment of Hudson was motivated by Hudson's "light skin complexion."

The complaint claims that retaliation followed shortly after Hudson submitted the complaint. According to the filing, on July 21, 2025, just six days after Hudson's complaint was forwarded to the Office of Professional Responsibility and Legal Affairs for investigation, the department issued a disciplinary charge against Hudson for an incident that had occurred on March 23, 2025—nearly four months earlier, Kroner reported.

The complaint states that no disciplinary action had been taken during the four months between the March 23 incident and the submission of Hudson's discrimination complaint. Four officers, including Hudson, were charged with the same offense in connection with the same March 23 incident. Three of the four officers were acquitted while Hudson was the only officer found guilty, according to Kroner.

Court documents state that on Dec. 17, 2025, the department imposed a 10-day suspension without pay on Hudson with an additional 10 days held in abeyance. The complaint further alleges that Hudson was subjected to an ongoing pattern of "hostile treatment" following the submission of her discrimination complaint on June 4, 2025.

This treatment, according to the complaint, included consistently negative performance evaluations from Johnson, selective enforcement of appearance standards and the strategic placement of associates of Johnson in supervisory positions over Hudson.

The complaint seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, expungement of disciplinary records and institutional reforms to the department's hearing board procedures.