Commander's Suit Says Blacks, Women Favored
By: David Ashenfelter, staff writer, The Detroit Free Press
October 30, 2003
The commander of a Detroit-area Michigan State Police post is suing the director of the department, claiming he was knocked out of contention for a job promotion and targeted for retaliation because he is white.
First Lt. Stephen Krafft, commander of the Metro North State Police post in Oak Park, charged in a federal lawsuit that State Police Director Tadarial Sturdivant and Second District commander Dewayne Brantley suspended him for 20 days without pay, reassigned him to other duties and disciplined him for bogus and petty infractions after he complained about being passed over for promotion by a less-qualified black man. Sturdivant and Brantley are black.
Krafft said the department later rescinded the suspension, but not before his career was damaged. He accused Sturdivant and Sturdivant's predecessors of systematically discriminating against white men in their zeal to hire and promote minorities and women.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, seeks in excess of $1 million and an injunction to halt the alleged practices.
"Steve Krafft has been a company man all his career," his lawyer, James Fett of Pinckney, said Wednesday. "If someone would have told him 10 years ago that he would be suing the Michigan State Police, he would have laughed in their face. But their conduct has been so outrageous, he felt he had no other choice."
A State Police spokeswoman said Sturdivant and Brantley, a captain who commands the six-county southeast Michigan region, couldn't comment on pending litigation.
Fett said Krafft, who is in his mid 40s, has been a stellar employee. He became a trooper in 1979, was promoted to sergeant in 1987 after scoring 99 out of 100 on the sergeant's exam and became a lieutenant in 1992. He was named post commander in Oak Park around 1993.
Fett said Krafft's problems began in spring 2002, when he decided to apply to be state casino gaming inspector. Fett said Sturdivant and Brantley wanted a black person to fill the job and sought to disqualify Krafft.
The lawsuit said they decided to investigate Krafft for distributing an e-mail containing the questions for an upcoming sergeant's promotional exam. In late 2002 and early 2003, Krafft was suspended and reassigned. Until then, Fett said, Krafft had an unblemished record.
None of the black supervisors who also distributed the exam questions -- or the headquarters official who sent the e-mail without marking it confidential -- were disciplined, the suit said.
Krafft filed a grievance with the Michigan Civil Service Commission. In May, on the eve of arbitration, Fett said, the State Police dropped the charges and restored Krafft to post commander in Oak Park.
But the mistreatment didn't stop, the lawsuit said.
It said Brantley, acting on Sturdivant's orders, has continued to discipline Krafft for false and petty infractions. It said Brantley has reprimanded him for not being at his desk when a commander called and for failing to spot and correct typographical errors in a subordinate's report.
The suit said the department has promoted black people who have committed serious infractions including assault, overtime fraud, soliciting a prostitute while on duty and shooting the woman's pimp. The suit didn't elaborate.
The suit said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated Krafft's case and concluded he was the victim of job discrimination.
Copyright 2003, Detroit Free Press
Record Number: 0310300311
