Opinion ID: 788282
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Incidences of Racist and Other Offensive Comments

Text: 8 The first instance of offensive commentary plaintiffs point to allegedly occurred in 1984. Gene Salecker, a white officer employed at the Department and not a party to this litigation, had a conversation with defendant Leenheer in which Leenheer referred to the father of a student protest leader as a nigger. A few years later, in 1987, when Salecker was the only white officer assigned to the midnight shift, Leenheer telephoned Salecker at home and suggested that he transfer to the afternoon shift so that all blacks would be on the midnight shift, all the `donkeys' would be stuck on the midnight shift and they can fuck each other around. Leenheer apparently used the term donkeys to refer to blacks on a number of occasions during this time period. 9 Plaintiff Smith testified at his trial that in early 1992, while eating lunch in the break room, he overheard Leenheer ask if anyone in the break room had seen him. Leenheer was apparently unaware of Smith's presence. When no person responded affirmatively, Smith overhead Leenheer retort I don't like working with the nigger anyway. Later in 1992, Leenheer arrested a black student named Victor Sellers. An officer informed Leenheer that Smith felt Sellers's arrest was racially-motivated. Salecker gave a statement to the Chief of Police that was supportive of Smith's perspective and conflicted with that of Leenheer and another officer, Robert Paprocki. Later, Paprocki called Salecker a nigger-lover. 10 In 1993, Northeastern's Affirmative Action officer Margo Smith conducted an internal investigation filed by Smith against Leenheer, Director Curtin and others. In this investigation, she learned that Leenheer stated, I am going to get these motherfuckers fired. This statement referred to plaintiffs Smith and Reeves. 11 In 1997, there were a number of incidents in which Leenheer was overheard using racial epithets. In the spring of that year, Mindy Tran, a student aide working at the Department, overheard Leenheer telling another officer, Hopeton Rowe, I am going to get two motherfucking black niggers fired. Later that summer, with Leenheer standing near her desk, Tran and another student, Yamileth Valdes, heard Leenheer say, Oh, those motherfucking niggers. Tran and Valdes complained to Guerrero about Leenheer's use of racial epithets. Plaintiff Weaver also once heard Leenheer call Smith and Reeves black motherfuckers. Weaver's staff reported to her that Leenheer and Connolly were constantly talking about Officer Reeves and Officer Smith and calling them derogatory names such as `black niggers' and talking about them losing their jobs which caused the students to be scared. Delia Prondzinski, a full-time clerk working under Weaver's supervision, also heard Leenheer refer to African-Americans as black motherfuckers sometime in 1997. 12