TRENTON – A lawsuit against Trenton and its police department has been settled in court for $1 million after a former detective sued for racial discrimination.
Damon Jefferson, the only black crime scene detective at the time, worked for Trenton Police for 15 years before being forced to retire. On March 29, 2014, Jefferson arrived at his desk and found a stuffed brown monkey with a rubberband noose around its neck hanging off the side of his cubicle.
The lawsuit says it was an obvious racist symbol directed intentionally at Jefferson to “humiliate, intimidate, oppress, discriminate and injure” him. Jefferson had experienced “similar acts” while he was with the department, finding a picture of two white men spooning with the caption “RETALIATION IS IMMINENT” in a nearby cubicle.
“It’s a disgraceful incident,” said Robin Lord, an attorney representing Jefferson in the lawsuit. “If this how they treat their own, imagine how they treat others on the street.” Clifford Bidlingmaier also represented Jefferson in the lawsuit.
Making it worse, no one on the force who knew about the discrimination took steps to report or stop it, the lawsuit says.
Not even Sgt. Roberto Rios, who was Jefferson’s supervisor at the time, says the lawsuit, alleging Jefferson’s civil rights were violated, that he was discriminated against and forced to work in a hostile environment which worsened when the police department violated state whistleblower laws by retaliating against him for reporting colleagues’ possible criminal conduct to superiors.
The lawsuit names Michael Kruchinsky, an acting sergeant who supervised Jefferson, as well as eight members of Trenton’s police force, including current and past crime scene detectives Jefferson worked alongside before he was forced to retire after initially being placed on stress leave.
The lawsuit does not say who was responsible for hanging the monkey from Jefferson’s desk, but Lord confirmed it was Krunchinsky who was responsible for the incident.
“It’s unfortunate that in today’s day and age, we have to teach Trenton’s police department that hanging a monkey in the cubicle of a black detective, just should not occur. It’s really sad that people don’t know how dehumanizing such conduct really is.”
Previous Trentonian reporting contributed to this article.
Editor’s Note: The story was updated to add co-counsel for the lawsuit.
