Nearly $1M Awarded To Former Howard County Employee In Racial Harassment Trial

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A jury has awarded a former Howard County Department of Public Works employee nearly $1 million in a racial harassment case.

The verdict, handed down Wednesday night, found that Darrell Fletcher, a 54-year-old Black man, was subject to "repeated harassment from white co-workers," according to David Karman, associate attorney at Gilbert Employment Law and one of the lawyers representing Fletcher. While on the job, Fletcher faced racial slurs, physical assault, claims that he was unqualified to do his job and was denied assignments to train others.

Karman said Fletcher reported the harassment to supervisors on numerous occasions, but the county DPW did not take action to protect him. Fletcher was awarded $961,556.40 in compensatory damages.

“Mr. Fletcher showed incredible fortitude in the face of disgusting mistreatment. While nothing can fully repair the emotional and economic damage that this abuse caused him, today’s verdict delivers an important measure of justice,” Karman said. “We are proud to have helped make things right for him and his family.”

Fletcher was hired as a utility worker II at the DPW’s Bureau of Utilities in October 2018, placing him above several white co-workers who were designated as utility worker I, according to information provided by Karman.

"From his first day, his co-workers claimed that he was only hired for the position because he must be related to George Gibson, a superintendent at the BOU who is also Black. This clique of white co-workers consisted of peers and supervisors alike, meaning Mr. Fletcher was subjected to discriminatory treatment from all sides," Karman said.

"He was assigned work that fell beneath his rank, while white co-workers who were junior to him were given tasks that should have been his responsibility. These co-workers referred to him using racial slurs and called him “boy,” refused to train him or be trained by him, and even physically pushed him while he was walking away from an altercation at a sewer rig," he added.

Fletcher explained that he'd always had a connection to construction work through his family, so he was "proud to work at the DPW."

"But the emotional pain of dealing with constant racism wore on me. It’s been an extremely difficult journey to get back on my feet and get to a better place. I spent so long dealing with the fallout the harassment had on me and my family, but I’m very relieved that we’re finally here today,” Fletcher said in a statement. “My honest hope is that this case creates long-overdue change at the DPW to address these issues – no one should have to endure what I faced in their place of work.”

According to Karman and information provided in court, Fletcher reported the harassment to his supervisors both verbally and in written complaints on several occasions, but the DPW failed to appropriately address the situation and protect Fletcher from the ongoing discrimination.

"He suffered severe mental and eventually physical distress from dealing with this treatment on a routine basis until his doctor informed him that he shouldn’t work under these circumstances given the negative effects it was having on his health. He was ultimately let go by the department for his medical inability to perform his duties. Unable to get work in the same field, Mr. Fletcher has been forced to work as a truck driver and drives over 3,500 miles each week to support his family," Karman said.

During closing arguments, the defense argued that Fletcher’s lawyers failed to prove that the harassment claim was "severe or pervasive," and that it “had nothing to do with his race,” Tsega Girma, the senior assistant county solicitor at the Howard County Office of Law, told The Baltimore Banner.

“By his own very statements, Mr. Fletcher’s harassment was not motivated by his race, but because of the position he was hired for, and because he was promoted within two months of coming to the county,” Girma said in closing remarks. "Do I excuse the conduct of these employees who had some animus towards him because he came in as a utility worker II? Absolutely not. Is that appropriate? Absolutely not. But these employees felt slighted."

According to the lawsuit, in 2017, an outside investigator contracted by the Howard County Department of County Administration reported that racial discrimination had been part of the culture of the bureau for numerous years, The Baltimore Banner reported.

The report also described a clique of employees within the bureau that consisted of white men, with the exception of one Black man. They identified themselves as the “Carroll County Boys” and exercised “fear and power over other employees who believe they cannot do anything about the group," The Baltimore Banner reported.

The report from the outside investigator was not used as evidence in the trial. But Girma acknowledged during the trial that the Carroll County Boys existed before Fletcher’s employment, and "resentment from employees about external hires being promoted or starting at higher positions was not unique to him."

Mark Miller, spokesperson for the Howard County Government, said, "While there is litigation pending, the county will have no comment."