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Lane lawsuit jury deliberating |
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 |
No verdict had been reached this morning in a gender discrimination lawsuit in which Benton Police Chief Kirk Lane is listed as a defendant along with 11 employees of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office.
Before coming to Benton as police chief, Lane was a captain with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office.
That case is being tried in U.S. Eastern District Court in Little Rock.
Lane and the 11 others are accused of gender discrimination by two female deputies there.
The suit originally included three plaintiffs, but one has dropped out of the case. Allegations by Synnova Inscore were dismissed on Friday because of lack of evidence.
Lane was named in claims raised by Stephanie Cloos of Hensley. The suit notes that Lane was named as a superior officer who did not transfer Cloos from the patrol unit to the investigations unit of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department in 2007.
Cloos claims she was not transferred because of sexual discrimination. However, she later was assigned to the investigations unit, but she says she worked in a hostile work environment.
During closing arguments Monday, Fred Ursery, who represents Lane, reminded the jury his client was mentioned only in the case of Cloos, and Lane was not included in the claim of a hostile work environment. Ursery never called Lane to testify because he said Lane’s testimony would be redundant in view of the testimony of other witnesses.
“What he could tell you, you already heard,” Ursery told the jury. “I was trying to be considerate of your time and not have repetitious testimony.”
Ursery also pointed out to the jury that the plaintiff’s lawyer, Lucien Gillham, did not mention Lane in his closing statements.
During Gillham’s closing remarks, he asked the jury to consider awarding $6,000 in punitive damages to Cloos. This would compensate her for the money she did not earn after being denied her initial transfer, he said.
Gillham requested additional money to reimburse his client for the stress and health conditions created by her alleged discrimination.
The jury was told to not speculate on this amount. However, Gillham outlined the amount of medical attention Cloos received in order to give the jury a better idea of the amount he contends she should receive.
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