A career Black officer in the Alexandria Police Department passed over for promotion in favor of white colleagues was awarded a “shocking” $7.25 million in compensatory damages by a jury who upheld his allegations of racial discrimination against the city.
The verdict appears to surpass the $300,000 statutory cap on compensatory damages in federal discrimination lawsuits and is now disputed by the parties, who U.S. District Court Judge Patricia T. Giles directed to submit post-trial briefs to address.
Plaintiff Delton Goodrum, who grew up in Alexandria, was hired by the police department in 1996, became its first Black motorcycle officer in 2004, and was promoted to lieutenant in 2014, after which he served as the Vice and Narcotics commander and then as SWAT team commander.
In the fall of 2020, he applied for one of two open positions of captain, along with eight other colleagues, his lawsuit says. The candidates were evaluated and ranked by a third-party consulting firm that looked at their work histories and performance on oral tactical and presentation exercises…