Opinion ID: 788282
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Employee Factions

Text: 23 Officer Dwight Pearson indicated that by the time he began working at the Department in 1997, most of the Department staff had been divided according to race or opposition to racial discrimination. The Department had been divided into two groups, informally known as the A team and the B team. Smith testified that Leenheer was the person responsible for the creation of these teams, and deciding who belonged to each. According to Pearson, the A team consisted of Director Curtin, Leenheer, Connolly, Leyva, Hopeton Rowe, Robert Parocki and Leenheer's wife, Chris Leenheer. All officers on the A team were white, with the possible exception of Rowe who was Jamaican and apparently did not consider himself black. The B team was comprised of Smith, Reeves, Donna Higgins, Pearson, Derrick Spenser and Salecker. Smith, Reeves, Spenser, and Pearson were black, while Higgins and Salecker were white. Plaintiffs perceived that the A team enjoyed more latitude on the job, while the B team was limited and often disciplined for engaging in the same actions as the A team.