A former Clark County sheriff’s commander’s nearly decadelong legal battle in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the county was settled for $1.2 million.
Clifford B. Evelyn reached the agreement June 2, he said, and as a result, dropped his suit, as first reported by The Skanner News in Portland.
Evelyn — who was a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department — was fired in June 2009 after he began trading accusations with employees of the jail’s then-medical service provider, Wexford Health Sources, in 2008. He pushed his superiors to file a breach of contract against Wexford after noting several violations. Wexford employees filed a complaint against Evelyn — some alleging sexual harassment — which eventually led to his termination. Around the same time, the county released a study of Wexford’s failings. Wexford no longer provides health services at the jail.
“I didn’t want to mediate. I wanted to go to trial. I wanted to clear my name and expose a bunch of stuff,” Evelyn, 66, of Vancouver said in a phone interview Friday. “They dragged this out so long, I started thinking, ‘Who’s to say how long I’m going to live?’ It’s such a toll on my family and my body.
“As a black man in America and in the sheriff’s department, I’m presumed guilty. You have to prove yourself to be innocent. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but that’s the way it worked for me. All I wanted to do was do my job,” Evelyn added. “If I really did something wrong, then why are you paying me?”
Efforts to reach the county’s attorneys and Evelyn’s attorney were unsuccessful Friday.
Evelyn was one of three African-American men who filed the suit against the county. He, former custody officer Britt Easterly and Elzy Patrick Edwards, a job applicant who was denied employment, alleged a pattern of racial discrimination by jail managers and officers.
Evelyn claimed that the county subjected him to a hostile work environment and treated him disparately because of his race.
Edwards applied to be a custody officer at the jail in October 2007 and was later subjected to an “unnecessarily lengthy, unprofessional and abusive background interview,” in which the interviewer delved into his personal life, according to the complaint. He filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission and county human resource officials, and he was ultimately not hired.
Court records show that the county in May offered to pay Edwards $75,001.
Easterly — who was a custody officer from 2003 until he left the sheriff’s office in 2009 after being passed over for a promotion — claimed that there were several instances of racism that affected his work environment, including an inappropriate posting of a picture and being denied training opportunities.
A Clark County Superior Court jury awarded Easterly $500,000 following a two-week trial in August. The damages were $100,000 more than he had sought. The county challenged the jury’s finding afterward, but a judge ruled in November that the award stand.
Evelyn’s and Edwards’ claims were tied up in the Washington Court of Appeals at the time, so the trial proceeded only with Easterly.
A Superior Court judge in May 2014 granted the county’s motion for summary judgment, dismissing Evelyn’s and Edwards’ claims on the grounds it was unclear whether their race played a substantial factor. But after appealing the decision, the higher court in June 2016 reversed Edwards’ dismissal and reversed a portion of Evelyn’s dismissal.
Evelyn testified during Easterly’s trial.
“I don’t lie about stuff. I was very direct and told them the facts about the discrimination going on,” he said.
Evelyn grew up in New York, served in the U.S. Navy and has lived in big cities. He said he knows racism when he sees it.
“I have never seen the amount of racism as I did in Clark County, and it’s so subtle, no one notices it,” he said. “People are so numb to the way things function out here until something happens to (them).”
