Round Rock Officer Claiming Discrimination Meeting In Mediation Session

ROUND ROCK, TX — An officer who filed a discrimination complaint against Police Chief Allen Banks will meet with city representatives for a mediation session on Tuesday, according to a published report.

The officer's attorney, Georgetown-based Robert McCabe, told the Austin American-Statesman about the planned mediation session scheduled today. Round Rock spokesman Will Hampton declined comment, citing the pending nature of the litigation.

The officer in question, Mike Losoya, was fired in December after he was accused of making a false statement after Losyoa declined to arrest someone suspected of driving while intoxicated last April, McCabe told the newspaper via a prepared statement.

Losoya appealed his firing by Banks to a third-party examiner, who previously ruled the city could not demonstrate the officer knowingly made a false statement or police report, according to the report. Rather than accept the ruling, the city retaliated against Losoya by "subjecting him to a discriminatory and hostile work environment" when he returned to the force, according to McCabe's statement sent to the publication.

The attorney further claimed that since the investigation of Losoya started, four other cases of officer dishonesty have emerged but the chief hasn't investigated any of them, he told the newspaper.

Losoya filed his discrimination complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the Texas Workforce Commission. His attorney called for the chief to acknowledge the previous ruling by the third-party examiner.

“Officer Losoya simply wants Chief Allen Banks to respect the ruling of the hearing examiner and un-sustain the now clearly unfounded allegations of lying in an official capacity,” McCabe stated in the press release sent to the publication. "It is our hope that Chief Banks recognizes the apparent disparities in how he treated Losoya, a minority, versus how to chose to ignore several recent cases involving alleged acts of dishonesty involving white officers.”

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

Image via Shutterstock, photo via Round Rock Police Department