City sued over discipline in slur case

04/10/2006

William Kaempffer , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — A firefighter who was suspended for six months for using a racial slur at work has sued the city, claiming she was singled out for discipline and humiliated in public for fumbling over her words. In a federal lawsuit, Carole LaCroix, 33, claimed the city violated her constitutional right to equal protection under the law by punishing her more harshly than other firefighters who used racially charged language.

LaCroix, who is white, is seeking unspecified damages for public humiliation and emotional distress.

"In the course of the labor arbitration hearings, we learned that the New Haven Fire Department is not a convent, and hurtful words have been said on other occasions without people being immediately taken out to the wood shed and held out to public scorn as a racist," said her lawyer, Norman Pattis. "When the city made a decision to hold her out to the world as nothing more than a KKK member, they made a decision with consequences."

The LaCroix situation occurred in October 2003 when the firefighter was asked to escort representatives from local charities to firehouses to give presentations to solicit donations. On that day, the representative from the United Negro College Fund had not shown up, and LaCroix, against her will, was called upon to make the presentation. As she read from a document, she fumbled over her words and said "nigger" instead of "Negro," the lawsuit claims. When people incredulously asked her to repeat herself, she repeated it.

The six-month suspension ultimately was overturned in arbitration, and the city was ordered to pay her back wages.

The arbitration panel concluded that LaCroix wasn’t acting maliciously. Afterward, LaCroix tearfully apologized and blamed the mistake on dyslexia, a reading disorder, and nervousness at public speaking.

City Corporation Counsel Thomas W. Ude Jr. said Friday he isn’t aware of any other similar situations in the department, as the lawsuit alleges.

"The Board of Fire Commissioners was acting in good faith," said Ude. "I don’t think there’s any basis for her claim."

Scot X. Esdaile, the president of the Connecticut NAACP and a New Haven resident, said he supported the city’s actions against LaCroix and called it "absurd" that she now is trying to sue. He said the NAACP doesn’t accept or believe that her statement was accidental or a result of dyslexia.

"If you look the word Negro backwards, it doesn’t say nigger," Esdaile said.

Dyslexia historically has been defined as a reading disorder in which a person reverses letters and numbers and sees words backwards, although many researchers now say that is a misconception.

The lawsuit and subsequent comments also ignited a sharp exchange between Esdaile and Pattis Friday as Esdaile cast the civil rights lawyer as a "wolf in sheep’s clothing."

He pointed to an opinion piece Pattis, who is white, wrote in the Connecticut Law Tribune in which he used the word "niggers." Pattis’ op-ed piece blasted the criminal justice system as tilted against young black defendants.

It concluded this way: "Wake up, Connecticut. Or at least admit that we don’t care how we process the brutal little niggers in our midst."

Esdaile said, "It’s not all right for him, and it’s not all right for (LaCroix). We clearly see where Norm Pattis is at on this. Using that type of language, he’s no friend of ours."

Pattis responded that he was "stunned" that Esdaile would take exception to his comments about the role of race in jury selection.

"Everybody knows that people of color get railroaded in jury selection," Pattis said. "Mr. Esdaile and the NAACP would better serve the community by focusing on the lack of people of color on juries than on poor Carole LaCroix who had a slip of the tongue. It was a cheap shot from Mr. Esdaile. I expected better of him."