A fired Little Rock police officer who claimed to be the victim of gender discrimination and retaliation by her superiors should get a written apology from her former supervisor, but nothing else, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled Monday.
Tiffany Malone, who was also known as Tiffany Johnson during her seven years as a police officer, sued in 2014 to get her job back, or at least the money she would have earned from her $45,000-a-year position since her 2013 firing, plus damages.
Instead, the judge ordered Corey Hall, who once supervised Malone, to write her an apology on his own time within 10 days then post a copy at the entrance of the police station and every substation. The apology must be written while he is off duty so that taxpayers will not have to pay for the time it takes, Fox wrote.
Hall must then make sure, also on his own time and at his own expense, that each letter remains visible and legible for an entire month, according to the ruling.
And while the apology should specifically address Malone, it must also address every female police officer that Hall has ever worked with, the ruling states.
"The written apology shall state that defendant Corey Hall has been court-ordered to issue an apology because of his prior disrespectful and inappropriate language and actions toward and about female police officers and that he genuinely regrets any and all disrespectful and inappropriate language and actions he may have made to or against [Malone] ... and any other female police officers," the three-page ruling states.
Fox's ruling comes after the February trial over Malone's allegations that she was fired for reporting harassment by Hall, then complaining that women were held to a higher standard than the men. Malone's attorney Lucian Gilham did not return an email seeking comment.
Police say Malone was fired because she pepper-sprayed a drunk, one-legged homeless man while he was in handcuffs after being arrested. Her version of what led to her decision to spray him was contradicted by the police dash-camera video, and she'd already been suspended twice for not being truthful with her superiors.
The judge threw out all of of Malone's accusations against the Police Department, Assistant Police Chief Wayne Bewley, Capt. Mike Davis and former Police Chief Stuart Thomas.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter said Monday that he was pleased with the decision and that the city has always maintained Malone was not entitled to any damages award.
The only allegation that Fox sustained was her complaint against Hall. A phone number for Hall was not available.
But the judge ruled that Malone was not entitled to any money from Hall because Malone had not been completely honest when she testified at trial that she had recorded Hall sexually propositioning her.
A transcript of that recording "does not support the plaintiff's testimony," the judge wrote.
"It is clear to the court that neither plaintiff nor defendant Corey Hall were completely truthful in their testimony, and the court rules that because of such untruthful testimony, the plaintiff has failed to meet her burden of proof against Corey Hall with respect to her request for relief for monetary and consequential damages," the ruling states.
Hall testified at trial that he had regularly used coarse language as a supervisor but that he never used profanity to demean any officer, including Malone. Hall told the judge he had quit using profanity around her after he was reprimanded about it when she complained.
He also denied treating her differently from any other officer. But he said he was a strict supervisor who held his officers to a high standard and that Malone had a propensity for coming to work late and wearing her hair longer than regulations allowed.
In sanctioning Hall, the judge also ordered him to place a copy of the apology and the ruling in his personnel file.
"It is clear to the court that he regularly used obscene language in his conversations with the plaintiff, and further, that in the plaintiff's presence he made repeated derogatory comments about at least one other female Little Rock police officer," Fox wrote.
Hall lost his rank as a sergeant and now works at a lower rank.
Metro on 03/07/2017