Accusations of discrimination and dishonesty against a Little Rock police captain resurfaced at trial Thursday in the captain's lawsuit claiming bias at the department.
Capt. Patrice Smith is suing the agency and former Police Chief Stuart Thomas over a 2012 promotion to assistant chief for which she was passed over. The suit states that Thomas, who is white, didn't choose Smith for the position because she is black and a woman.
Additionally, Smith testified Thursday in Pulaski County Circuit Court that the promotion process at the time was flawed. She said she hadn't been evaluated accurately for the position through performance reviews and interviews, even after an appeal.
Thomas selected Hayward Finks and Wayne Bewley that year to become assistant chiefs.
Deputy City Attorney Bill Mann questioned whether Smith, a department veteran of more than 30 years, would lie to support her lawsuit. He referenced an internal complaint Smith filed with the department in 2004, which also accused the police chief and two assistant chiefs of bias.
Smith said she believed former Assistant Police Chief David Rowan to be a racist, but she lied about that during a deposition on the advice of her attorney, according to a court transcript. Smith said she later admitted the lie to then-Police Chief Lawrence Johnson.
Thursday, Smith said it was merely a change of opinion, and she hadn't been untruthful in her current case.
"I have no reason to lie about this. I'm eligible for retirement ... I would not have spent this money on this mess," she said.
Mann also referenced a discrimination lawsuit that four female detectives filed against Smith, who was their supervisor, in 2002. The suit stated the detectives had been "viciously belittled, verbally harassed and treated disrespectfully in a fashion and vehemence not used by [Smith] in her dealings with black or male subordinates."
Smith said the suit was settled when the city "paid off" the detectives against her wishes, according to the deposition.
Smith's attorney, Robert Newcomb, spent most of Thursday questioning witnesses over record keeping in the 2012 selection of assistant chiefs. A panel interviewed and ranked candidates for the position but recorded that activity through only short-hand notes and standardized documents.
Newcomb asked why the interviews weren't recorded by video or audio for later reference, a common practice in other municipalities.
Donald Flegal, a retired Little Rock Human Resources Department director, said in testimony that job candidates had complained about having interviews cut off by noisy or malfunctioning equipment, battery replacements and other technical issues that made it "extremely difficult to videotape interviews accurately."
He said candidates and panels sometimes behave differently in front of a camera or microphone.
"It's probably caused us more problems in the selection process than any other thing," Flegal said.
The city recorded interviews for assistant police chief in 2004 and returned to the practice this year.
Smith's suit also claims Bewley received an unfair advantage in the 2012 competition for assistant chief because he'd held the job on an interim basis beforehand. Bewley's assignment lasted six months, which Newcomb argued violated state civil service laws limiting temporary appointments to 60 days.
Newcomb said the city had tried to "get around state law."
The city has denied that. In court filings, Mann wrote it was unclear whether the assistant chief position even existed at the time because of a budget shortfall. It wasn't until a city tax increase buoyed funds that Thomas was authorized to hire again in 2012, Mann said.
Flegal supported that argument in testimony Thursday.
"The city manager was of the position that any position that was vacated was to be eliminated ... You couldn't hire anyone. You couldn't do anything," he said.
Smith is seeking compensatory damages from the city, punitive damages from Thomas and for assistant chiefs Bewley and Finks to vacate their positions.
Thomas, Bewley and Finks attended Thursday's proceedings but did not testify. The trial is set to resume this morning.
Metro on 06/26/2015