By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus Fire Division battalion chief who was the first woman in that position has lost the discrimination lawsuit she filed against the city in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson dismissed Yolanda Arnold’s claims that she had been harassed because she is black and that she had suffered retaliation because of her discrimination claims. Arnold also had said she was humiliated and embarrassed.
Watson ruled last month that Arnold did not provide specific proof of her allegations in three years of court proceedings that included numerous depositions of witnesses and presentations of exhibits such as emails, newspaper stories and other documents.
Much of the evidence was hearsay, which was not admissible direct evidence of discrimination, Watson said.
Arnold, 55, who remains a Columbus fire battalion chief, said yesterday that she is appealing the judge’s decision to dismiss her suit.
“I have every confidence that I will win,” she said. “There’s a lot that went on in this fire department that the public should know.”
Her attorney, Dennis R. Thompson, said the case is far from over. “With all due respect, we believe the court is wrong,” he said. “We’re anxious to get the case to trial.”
The lawsuit stemmed from allegations by city building inspectors in 2004 that fire inspectors under Arnold’s command were skipping inspections and collecting overtime pay.
Separate investigations by the Columbus police and fire divisions found no wrongdoing. A third investigation, by a private attorney, found management problems in the Fire Prevention Bureau, which Arnold ran, but it also found that claims of racial discrimination in the bureau were unfounded.
During the third investigation, Fire Chief Ned Pettus accused Arnold of lying to investigators and suspended her for a week. She also was moved out of the Fire Prevention Bureau.
Arnold filed the lawsuit in January 2008. Watson’s ruling was in response to a request by the city for a summary judgment against Arnold.
Ten other Columbus firefighters who worked as fire inspectors filed three similar discrimination lawsuits against the city in federal court. Watson dismissed two of those suits on March 31, the day he also dismissed Arnold’s. A third is pending.
Timothy Mangan, an assistant city attorney who defended the city in Arnold’s lawsuit, said Watson’s decision speaks for itself. “We feel the city acted properly at all times,” he said.
Arnold had complained in the past about discrimination. When she was promoted to lieutenant in 1994, she told The Dispatch that the Columbus Fire Division had been “a very hostile environment” in 1983 when she joined as one of its five female firefighters.
The 1994 promotion made Arnold the first black female officer in the division. She became the first woman promoted to captain, in 1998, and to battalion chief, in 2002.
Arnold said yesterday that she plans to stay with the Fire Division. “I’ve got a lot of years left,” she said.
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