The Cincinnati police chief has been accused of anti-white racism and sexism by four department veterans in an explosive lawsuit.
Chief Theresa Theetge, who is already under intense scrutiny over her handling of a mass brawl in the Ohio city last weekend, is being sued alongside the city.
Capt. Robert Wilson, and Lts. Patrick Caton, Gerald Hodges and Andrew Mitchell say in their complaint that her department disfavored and disregarded white men for top positions in the force.
The four claim in their lawsuit that the department disregarded qualifications, time spent with the department and commanders’ staffing requests, when picking top brass.
‘Plaintiffs, who are White males, were denied all opportunities for preferred assignments due to their race and/or sex,’ the complaint states.
They claim the department and the city ‘intentionally’ and ‘disproportionately favored non-white males and/or females’.
The suit, filed in May before the viral brawl happened, added that the City and Chief Theetge had, ‘actively undertaken efforts to promote, advance and make promotion and assignment decision that are preferable to women and minorities’.
‘Plaintiffs applied for, and did not receive those positions. Furthermore, as respects the preferential assignments, each of the Plaintiffs were qualified for those positions,’ the filing states.
It added: ‘And similarly situated persons received those preferential assignments on the basis of race and/or sex.
‘Plaintiffs were treated differently than similarly situated employees of a different race and/or sex.’
The suit claims that Chief Theetge had previously used a race-base quota system to ‘promote minorities and/or women to Lieutenant’.
The four are seeking all remedies under law, including compensatory damages, punitive damages, declaratory relief, injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees and costs.
A representative for the city said they would not comment on ongoing litigation. The police department declined to comment.
The mass brawl last weekend showed a man and a Russian woman, known only as Holly, being violently accosted by a group of individuals.
Jermaine Matthews, 39, Montianez Merriweather, 34, and Dekyra Vernon, 24, were taken into custody this week after the viral ordeal, which JD Vance waded in on.
Matthew and Merriweather were initially charged with aggravated riot and assault over the brawl.
Matthews, however, was hit with three more charges on Thursday – two felonious assault and one misdemeanor assault charge.
It is alleged that Merriweather was the ‘catalyst’ for what detectives have described as a ‘coordinated attack’.
Search warrants have also been issued for two other unidentified people accused of jumping into the shocking melee.
Outside of court, two relatives of Merriweather told WLWT that the race of the victims, who are understood to be white Russians, catapulted the case to national attention.
‘If it was an African American woman who got knocked out… We wouldn’t have been going through all this,’ one of the women said.
Another woman, believed to be Merriweather’s mother Clarissa, said her son is an honor roll student with ‘a biracial child’ as she denied he was racist.
‘He’s not a racist,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t like they’re thugs… these Russians was walking down the street and on the video he said “you wanna mess with these Russians?”‘
‘He smacked the first guy… my child is in school, he has five kids, he’s on the B honor roll in school.’
The melee prompted an outcry from Theetge who admonished witnesses for failing to call 911.
‘Nobody called the police,’ she said Monday. ‘Nobody got us there as quickly as we could get there. They waited until they saw it on social media.
‘That is unacceptable to not call the police when you view this. Traffic was horrendous. People saw this, they were fighting in front of traffic.’