March 28, 2015
Caudle, et al. v. District of Columbia
Five African American plaintiffs sued the DC Metropolitan Police Department for retaliatory racial discrimination allegedly stemming from confidential complaints made to their superiors within the Department. The plaintiffs, who at the time were the only African Americans assigned to the elite VICE unit, subsequently were reassigned to other jobs that allegedly resulted in reductions in overtime.
Econ One was retained by counsel for the plaintiffs to ascertain whether the job reassignments had, in fact, affected the plaintiffs’ overtime hours, and to what extent any overtime reductions resulted in back pay damages. Louis Lanier testified at trial that the job reassignments had resulted in statistically significant reductions in the number of overtime hours worked. Dr. Lanier also provided calculations of back pay damages for each plaintiff. The jury awarded $900,000 in compensatory damages to the five plaintiffs.
