Facts

Mitchell Jones sued the County of Los Angeles, involving allegations of discrimination.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff, a member of the U.S. Navy reserves, began working as a full-time deputy sheriff for County of Los Angeles in 1998. Jones served in the Navy starting in 1989 on active duty until he became a Navy reservist in 1998. Plaintiff tested for sergeant twice (in 2006 and 2009), and was placed in Band 2 for promotion. Plaintiff claimed that despite placing in a Band, from which sergeant promotions were made, he was not promoted. He claimed the County of Los Angeles did not want to promote him to Sergeant because of his military service and hostility toward his deployments and training commitments.

Plaintiff alleged that in or about 2006 he began receiving negative treatment because of his military service, including comments from multiple supervisors ranking from sergeant all the way up to chiefs, which he construed to be anti-military/anti-military leave in nature. Plaintiff also claimed that his lieutenant had failed to recommend Jones for promotion to the personnel directly involved in sergeant promotions because the lieutenant was hostile to plaintiff's military service (i.e., a "Cat's Paw" theory).

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
The County of Los Angeles denied all of plaintiff's allegations, including that his supervisors had made any of the statements, which he attributed to them. Additionally, the county denied that his lieutenant, a former member of the Air Force, had recommended other employees over plaintiff for discriminatory reasons. The county argued that plaintiff was not competing for promotion with deputies in Band 1 (a higher Band), with female deputies (due to a federal consent decree regarding female promotion rates), or with deputies in other divisions. Furthermore, the county argued that plaintiff was in a highly competitive division and, when compared directly with his peers who were promoted to sergeant, he was not promoted because he had less tenure and a less impressive resume.

Damages

Plaintiff sought compensatory back pay damages for the difference between what he made as a deputy and what he would have made if he had been promoted to sergeant. Plaintiff further claimed that he was entitled to liquidated damages (equal to the amount of compensatory damages) because the county's conduct was willful.

Result

The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the county.