Jury finds DC police officers suffered retaliation; $900,000 award

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Richard Renner

Officers Donald Smalls, William James, Frazier Caudle, Nikeith Goins and Sholanda Miller worked for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) here in the District of Columbia. They worked for Lt. Ronald Wilkins of the First Division vice squad. In Feburary 2006, these five African-American officers filed anonymous charges of race discrimination against Lt. Wilkins.  Four days later, management announced that everyone in that squad would have to reapply for their jobs. These five who complained received new assignments in less desirable units. After an 11-day federal court trial, a jury has found that MPD management acted in retaliation.  It awarded two of the officers $250,000 each and another two $200,000 each. Spencer Hsu has released an article about the verdict in today's Washington Post. In the article, D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson raises a concern about an increasing number of whistleblower claims made in the Department.  He is also concerned that District officials are choosing to resist the retaliation claims instead of settling them. Congratulations to attorney Jennifer Klar of the Washington law firm of Relman, Dane & Colfax, for representing the officers in this victory.  The District has announced that it plans to appeal.

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DC Council improves whistleblower protection law

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Richard Renner

On Monday, the District of Columbia Council approved the Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009, which strengthens the DC Whistleblower Protection Act (DC Code § 1-615.51 et seq.) and The Employees of District Contractors and Instrumentality Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (DC Code § 2-223.01 et seq.). I thank my friends O. Scott Oswald and Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group for their work assisting the DC Council with this Act, and for letting us all know about it. Follow the link below for their summary of the improvements.

The Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009 eliminates loopholes in the existing DC statutes and provides critical enhancements, including the following:

  • Clarifying that a whistleblower need not be an original source of a protected disclosure.  The legislative history states: “prospective whistleblowers should not have to guess about whether a supervisor already knows about misconduct in government.”
  • Eliminating the “duty speech” loophole, i.e., protected conduct includes blowing the whistle in the course of performing one’s job duties.  Protected acts under the DC WPA include “disclosure[s] made in the ordinary course of an employee’s duties.”
  • Clarifying that retaliatory investigations are a form of actionable retaliation.  The DC WPA now defines retaliation to include “conducting or causing to be conducted an investigation of an employee or applicant for employment because of a protected disclosure made by the employee or applicant who is a whistleblower.”  An investigation includes a fitness for duty examination.
  • Extending the statute of limitations to 3 years and clarifying that § 12-309 (the pre-suit notice provision) does not apply to DC WPA claims.  Under the revised DC WPA, a “civil action shall be filed within 3 years after a violation occurs or within one year after the employee first becomes aware of the violation, whichever occurs first.” 
  • Clarifying that a DC WPA action can be brought against a DC supervisor or official having personal involvement in the prohibited personnel action.  “Any person” who is found to have participated in prohibited retaliation may be “subject to appropriate disciplinary action including dismissal.”
  • Providing a financial incentive for whistleblowing.  In particular, a whistleblower may receive an award of up to $50,000 for providing information that enables the District to recover or prevent the loss of more than $100,000 in public funds. 
  • Increasing the civil penalty for retaliation from $1,000 to $10,000.
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Jury awards Colin Browne $282,000

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Richard Renner

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Mr. Colin Browne worked as a program advisor for the UDC Career Counseling and Development Center. Throughout his term, he discovered many flaws within the system. For example, Kevin Naiker, the former Director of UDC’s “Team 100” retention program, and others were purposely spinning the retention numbers. UDC's “Team 100” retention program is a federally funded program for at-risk students. Mr. Browne also discovered that Kevin Naiker, who was supervising him for his licensure, did not have a doctoral degree, nor was he licensed. As these discoveries came to light, Mr. Browne’s nightmare began, yet he faced adversity with courage and righteousness.

Mr. Browne informed management, UDC’s Board of Trustees and the President. However, his calls fell on deaf ears, and UDC took no actions to correct the problems. Furthermore, Mr. Kevin Naiker began retaliating against Mr. Browne.  He did so by “auditing” Browne's files, berating him in front of co-workers, passing him up for promotion, and ultimately terminating his employment.


On October 22, 2009 the D.C. Superior Court awarded Mr. Browne total damages of over $282 000 through the DC Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).  Thanks to Mr. Browne’s moral compass, his determined spirit, leading to his wresting of victory from a powerful bureaucracy, Whistleblowers can have their hopes of justice restored.

R. Scott Oswald, Managing Principal with The Employment Law Group® law firm, represented Browne. He states, “This case is an extraordinary victory for whistleblower protection in the District of Columbia.” Congratulations to Browne and his lawyers.

Intern Tommy Leung contributed to this blog entry.
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