The first Black police director of a New Jersey city has been awarded $4.7 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Sheilah Coley alleged that she had faced racial and gender discrimination and retaliation for refusing to give preferential treatment to white police officers. Coley was appointed to the role by Trenton Mayor W.
Reed Gusciora in 2019 and was fired two years later. On Wednesday, a jury awarded Coley $714,000 in back pay, alongside $2 million in emotional distress damages and a further $2 million in punitive damages, bringing the total to $4,714,000, her attorney Jon Green told The Trentonian. Her lawsuit named the City of Trenton, Gusciora, and City Councilman George Muschal as defendants.
Newsweek contacted the Trenton mayor’s office and Coley’s attorney via email on Thursday. Gusciora announced in 2021 that Coley was being fired with immediate effect, saying his administration had decided to “move in a different direction.” He thanked her for her service and said, “Director Coley’s efforts to increase accountability, modernize law enforcement technology, and diversify the TPD command staff have been commendable.” The City Council voted 6-1 to uphold the decision to remove her. Coley filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in 2022, alleging discrimination and pressure to comply with requests by city officials.
In the lawsuit, she alleged that Gusciora repeatedly pressured her to accommodate requests from Councilman Muschal to give preferential treatment to white officers and applicants to the department. She said that many of the requests involved “overlooking violations of law, rules, regulations, or public policy.” In one instance, she alleged Gusciora undermined her decision to block the return to active duty of a white detective who had been convicted of perjury in federal court. She also alleged that she faced pressure to reinstate multiple white male officers who were under investigation over the deaths of civilians in police custody.
The lawsuit alleged that Coley faced “racist and/or sexist opposition to her decision-making and leadership” while white male colleagues who made similar decisions did not face the same opposition. It also contrasted her immediate dismissal with the treatment of white male colleagues accused of more serious offenses, who were allowed to remain on the payroll while awaiting their pension or looking for another job. The lawsuit also described the events leading up to her dismissal.
Coley alleged that she pushed back on Gusciora's request to share departmental documents with a member of the press, and texted him, “I may be too honest for this position.” Two days later, Gusciora's chief of staff and the city attorney informed her that she was being fired. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Geoffrey Rowland.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
