A former Fresno police officer filed a lawsuit saying she was topic to sexual harassment and racial discrimination in a hostile work atmosphere in Fresno Police Division, the place she was additionally investigated for not firing her service weapon right into a crowd engaged in a gun battle.
Amya Brooks, 23, resigned from Fresno Police Division on June 14, lower than two weeks before Chief Paco Balderrama announced he would resign. The lawsuit stated she was considered one of three Black ladies officers in Fresno.
She was an officer for about two years and had labored as a police cadet with the division earlier than that, based on her lawsuit. In that point, her coaching officer and others made feedback about her physique, instructed her Black policewomen had a nasty fame of being untrustworthy and stated the division used her as a public relations prop.
The lawsuit says when she complained in regards to the poor therapy from different officers, she was instructed to maintain quiet and was finally labeled a “snitch.”
The grievance filed on Friday asks the Fresno County Superior Courtroom to award her for misplaced wages and different damages to be decided at trial.
She declined to talk with The Fresno Bee, based on her lawyer, Nick Yasman of Los Angeles-based West Coast Employment Attorneys.
“Ms. Brooks simply wished an opportunity to stay out her dream of being a police officer free from such egregious abuse and harassment however, sadly, she selected the unsuitable division,” Yasman stated.
The town of Fresno doesn’t touch upon pending or ongoing litigation, spokesperson Sontaya Rose instructed The Bee on Monday.
Sexual harassment and racial discrimination
The lawsuit says a few week into her coaching with a Fresno corporal, a name got here in about an African American girl inflicting a disturbance at a McDonald’s. The corporal, who is known as within the lawsuit, stated to Brooks, “One other indignant Black bitch — you possibly can cope with this one,” the grievance alleges.
The corporal additionally had a bent to hit division tools — like a cruiser or the pc inside — with a balled up fist, the lawsuit says, including he did so to intimidate Brooks.
On one other event, the corporal instructed Brooks that an officer appreciated her “good, petite, ebony booty,” the lawsuit says. She endured a number of different undesirable sexual advances from officers.
Greater than as soon as she was used to tout the Fresno Police Division’s range, the lawsuit says. It factors to a photograph the division posted on its Facebook page on July 23, 2022.
She stated she was requested to be on the occasion at St. Relaxation Baptist Church, a predominantly Black church, for the looks of range within the division for information cameras. Balderrama instructed her to pose subsequent to him within the photograph later posted on Fb, the lawsuit says.
Across the similar time that summer season, she was despatched to Fightgirl Health, a health club based and run by a Fresno officer, for a TV information story, the lawsuit says. Brooks had by no means been to the health club earlier than however her supervisors wished the health club to seem various.
The lawsuit didn’t title the information station, however Brooks can be seen in an ABC30 news story from June 2022.
Hostile work atmosphere
Brooks was the topic of an insubordination declare final August she believed to be a retaliation for complaining in regards to the therapy by her coaching officer, the lawsuit says.
Two months later she was assigned to patrol alone throughout the evening shift in southwest Fresno.
4 days into her new task in October, Brooks was patrolling downtown and pulled right into a car parking zone close to Mezcal Lounge on Van Ness Avenue, the lawsuit says. It was round 2 a.m. so a big crowd, which the lawsuit estimated was about 150 individuals, was leaving the evening membership.
The group cut up into two teams on both facet of her patrol automotive earlier than some individuals rapidly drew guns and began firing at each other, the lawsuit says. Although most of the individuals within the teams weren’t armed.
Brooks drew her gun however by no means fired it due to the presence of unarmed civilians, the lawsuit says. She stated the occasions induced her to undergo from post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
In Might, she was knowledgeable she was beneath investigation by Inside Affairs for not activating her body-worn digicam throughout the taking pictures exterior Mezcal and for not firing her weapon, amongst different potential coverage violations, the lawsuit stated.
She was out on medical go away for stress for a portion of her second 12 months as an officer, however finally resigned in June.
