Gay San Francisco police officer awarded $225,000 in harassment lawsuit
Officer Brendan Mannix claimed he was routinely discriminated against and harassed by superiors due to his sexual orientation.
A gay San Francisco police officer will receive a $225,000 settlement in his lawsuit against the department, in which he alleged he was routinely discriminated against and harassed by his colleagues while superiors looked the other way.
On Feb. 8, the city’s Board of Supervisors gave final approval to the settlement with Officer Brendan Mannix, according to The Bay Area Reporter, the local LGBTQ publication for San Francisco.
Mannix filed his lawsuit in 2018, alleging that he had been sexually harassed and discriminated against by superior officers, and was retaliated against when he filed a complaint to stop the harassment.
Mannix, who joined the police force in 2015, first began his career at Richmond Station. But when he was transferred to Central Station, where officers are assigned to patrol the Financial District, the Embarcadero, Chinatown and North Beach, he began experiencing friction with other officers. In particular, Sgts. Patrick Tobin and Lawrence McDevitt, would routinely mock his appearance or behavior, making snide comments about “gays” or telling Mannix he was too “dramatic” or being a “queen.”
In his lawsuit, Mannix alleged that Central Station had an “Old Boys Club” mentality, where anyone who was not straight, cisgender, white, and male — and particularly those who did not conform to the sergeants’ perception of what a “man” should talk and act like — was targeted for mistreatment.
Mannix also claimed in his lawsuit that he was subjected to a hostile and abusive work environment. At one point, one of the sergeants began a rumor suggesting Mannix was involved in sexual relationship with the only other gay officer at the station. Mannix also alleged that he heard officers routinely make disparaging comments about transgender people and had even targeted a Muslim officer in the department for harassment due to his religion.
The mistreatment extended to denying Mannix backup in dangerous situations, he alleged, including an incident where he pursued a suspect after witnessing a robbery in progress. Although he radioed for back-up, nobody from Central Station arrived to help, forcing him to take down the suspect on his own and eventually receiving help from officers from another station.
Mannix remained on scene for an hour after the incident, but no sergeant from Central Station arrived, in violation of the police department’s policy. When he returned, he saw Tobin at his desk, and when he raised concerns about the lack of support, Tobin allegedly replied: “Jesus, don’t be such a queen!”
According to the lawsuit, Mannix took three months of leave in order to recover from anxiety and sleeplessness due to the harassment he experienced on the job, ultimately deciding to file a formal complaint with the city’s Department of Human Resources and its Equal Employment Opportunity Division. But the woman who filed the complaint, Sgt. Maria Ciriaco, allegedly omitted “nearly all” the incidents Mannix had described to her, insisting that his other allegations “could not or should not be included,” Mannix’s lawyers claim.
After filing the complaint, Mannix said he continued to be harassed, and even began receiving the more undesirable assignments in what he alleges was retaliation. By the time the Equal Employment Opportunity Division had processed his complaint, it ruled against Mannix, in part because Ciriaco had omitted so many of the incidents he had attempted to report. Unsatisfied with the resolution of his complaint, Mannix subsequently sued the city over his mistreatment on the job.
Tobin has since retired, but took a position as a reserve police officer with the Broadmoor Police Department in June 2017. McDevitt and Ciriaco still work for the San Francisco Police Department, but the SFPD media relations department declined to comment on whether any of the officers named in Mannix’s lawsuit had been disciplined.
In settling the lawsuit, the city of San Francisco did not admit any wrongdoing by the police department.
“Given the inherent costs of continued litigation, we believe the proposed settlement is an appropriate resolution,” Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office, told Mission Local. “There is no admission of liability on the part of SFPD or the city.”
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