A jury awarded $1.54 million to a Los Angeles firefighter who said he suffered a backlash and emotional distress after complaining that a colleague threatened to drop a bomb on him.
The Los Angeles Superior Court panel reached its verdict Wednesday in the first of two lawsuits brought by plaintiff James Sharlein against the city, alleging retaliation, whistleblower retaliation and failure to prevent harassment or retaliation. The jury rejected Sharlien’s harassment claims.
Sharlein, 38, worked at Fire Station 50 when female firefighter Ta’Ana Mitchell was assigned there in December 2017 as a probationary firefighter, according to his first suit filed in December 2018. That month, she allegedly began making inappropriate remarks about him, including, “I wanted to drop a bomb on Sharlein” and “If he was a girl, I would have beat his (epithet),” both of which were allegedly made in the presence of the plaintiff and a Los Angeles Fire Department supervisor.
Mitchell also said she wanted to sock Sharlein in the face and that her brother, who recently was released from jail, wanted to beat him up, according to the complaint.
Mitchell told members of the LAFD command staff that the plaintiff was harassing her, an allegation she knew was untrue, the suit stated.
LAFD management knew or should have known of Mitchell’s alleged misconduct, but did not stop it even after Sharlein complained, according to the lawsuit. Instead, supervisors allegedly denied him promotions to favored positions and transferred him to less favorable and “potentially more dangerous” work locations.
Sharlein also maintained he was not given chances to earn overtime pay, falsely accused of spreading gossip and rumors about another firefighter and subjected to improper investigations.
In their court papers, lawyers for the City Attorney’s Office argued that Sharlein could not tie any alleged harassment to his race or gender and that Mitchell denied making some of the offensive remarks the plaintiff attributed to her.
In his second suit filed Aug. 9, Sharlein maintains he has been denied promotions and suffered a further backlash for speaking out. Sharlein further says that since filing his first case he has been subjected to multiple adverse workplace transfers, denied chances for promotions and subjected to ostracism.
