Sergeant appeals penalty for racial slur

The Pinellas Park officer says the word was not a slur and his discipline earlier this year for another remark should suffice.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 13, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- A police officer who used an alleged racial slur has appealed his three-day suspension without pay.

Pinellas Park police Sgt. Michael Darroch argued in a hearing last week that the word he used -- a term for Vietnamese people -- was not a racial slur and that no one was intimidated by his use of it. He maintained that the Police Officers' Bill of Rights had not been followed.

In addition, Darroch contended that, in essence, he had already been punished for making the remark.

Darroch was disciplined earlier this year for making a remark that contained a sexual content, but that comment came after the alleged racial epithet. Darroch argued that, since he had been disciplined for remarks made after the epithet, the penalty for the sexual remark covered both -- even though city officials did not know about the racial comment at the time.

"He's already been disciplined for this," said Bill LauBach, executive director of the Police Benevolent Association. LauBach represented Darroch during the hearing.

Police Chief David Milchan has seven working days to decide whether to uphold the unpaid suspension.

"I listened to their arguments," Milchan said later. "It was a very cordial grievance hearing."

Darroch, 39, has worked for the Pinellas Park Police Department since July 1985. He earns about $49,100 a year.

Earlier this year, he was called as a witness during a personnel department investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. LauBach said he was present at the interview and made sure Darroch was not the subject of the inquiry before allowing the sergeant to speak.

During the interview, the subject of Darroch's alleged racial slur arose. After the inquiry was complete, the personnel department found no sexual harassment but recommended Darroch be punished for using a term that was derogatory toward Vietnamese.

LauBach said that was an "ambush." Darroch was a witness who, without warning, was made the subject of a complaint, LauBach said. "That just reeks of unfairness."

LauBach also argued that the alleged racial slur is not offensive, particularly in light of the context of the statement, with Darroch referring to North Vietnamese during the war.

"The use of the word is not racially derogatory in the context in which it was used in that its use was and is commonly used to describe the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, who this nation was at war with, and whosucceeded in killing 55,000 Americans," LauBach contended in a letter to the city.

LauBach also contended that no one present when the comment was made was intimidated, threatened, coerced or interfered with by the remark.

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