Black ex-officer in Kentucky alleging racial discrimination in lawsuit over firing

A Black ex-officer is suing his former police department in Kentucky, alleging that racial discrimination led to his firing, The Associated Press reported.

In the lawsuit, Jervis Middleton alleges that the Lexington Police Department was a “hostile work environment,” that he was targeted for his support of the Black Lives Matter movement and that errors were made in the charges against him, the AP reported. 

The lawsuit also says that Middleton was singled out because of his race and that his white counterparts accused of graver offenses were not punished.

“Jervis, while employed with LPD, was subjected to a hostile work environment in which unwelcomed racial harassment towards him and throughout the department was repeated and pervasive,” the lawsuit says, per the AP report.

Middleton was fired by the Lexington Police Department in February after being accused of providing information to racial injustice protesters in the city during demonstrations against the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. 

Middleton is being represented by Sam Aguiar, one of the lawyers for Taylor’s family, which reached a $12 million wrongful death settlement with the city of Louisville, Ky., in September.