Attorneys in a federal lawsuit filed by a former Pine Bluff police chief will attempt to settle the case before it goes to trial next week.
An order issued Monday by the U.S. District Court set a settlement conference for 9:30 a.m. Friday in Little Rock in the lawsuit filed nearly two years ago by former Pine Bluff Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones against the city and Mayor Debe Hollingsworth.
Davis-Jones, who is black, claimed Hollingsworth, who is white, fired her "with malice" because of her race.
Attempts to reach Davis-Jones and her attorney were unsuccessful Monday.
Little Rock attorney David Fuqua -- who is representing Pine Bluff on behalf of the Arkansas Municipal League -- said Monday that requesting the settlement conference was a mutual agreement but he was the one who made the initial suggestion.
"I'd like to see us settle the case if we can," Fuqua said. "I don't know if it will be settled or not, though. The parties have had some settlement discussions, but there is no agreement. We thought it might facilitate an agreement if we met."
The case is set for trial at 10 a.m. Monday in Pine Bluff.
Davis-Jones, 52, is asking for her job back, back pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and legal costs.
The suit claims that the city and Hollingsworth owes Davis-Jones because of the lost income, humiliation and mental anguish she suffered because of the termination, which the suit claims was "retaliation for having increased the number of African-American officers with the Pine Bluff Police Department."
Davis-Jones was hired in 2010 from Georgia by former Mayor Carl Redus Jr. and served 2 1/2 years as police chief before she was terminated.
Redus declined to participate in a "no-confidence" vote that tied the City Council in 2012. Redus could have broken the 4-4 vote.
A letter was circulated at that City Council meeting, saying members of the South Central chapter of the Arkansas Police Benevolent Association had no confidence in Davis-Jones because of a lack of "consistency" with disciplinary cases.
Hollingsworth said in a January 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article that she had no choice but to fire Davis-Jones immediately after Hollingsworth took office. She said in the article that the termination was a "mandate from the people about this all the way back to my campaign. They made clear that a change was needed within the Police Department."
Davis-Jones was replaced by former Pine Bluff Police Department Lt. Jeff Hubanks. The lawsuit claims that Hubanks is "less qualified" than she is because Davis-Jones holds a bachelor's degree, while Hubanks does not.
This is the second federal lawsuit the city has faced related to race and the Police Department in recent years.
Former Police Chief John Howell sued Redus in 2010. Redus, who is black, fired Howell, who is white, in 2010 for reasons not publicly given by the mayor.
In 2011, U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes dismissed the suit, saying it had no basis. Howell's appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was denied later that year.
State Desk on 01/27/2015