Fired police officer sues university

A former police officer at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith who lost his job last year has sued the school and the university’s police chief, alleging employment discrimination on the basis of race and age.

Christopher Thompson claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith that Chief Ray Ottman made “racially charged” comments.

Ottman was hired as chief in 2015, and the lawsuit states Thompson began working as a UAFS police patrolman in 2012.

The lawsuit describes Thompson as African-American and Ottman as a white male, and it states Ottman acted with “excessive cursing and yelling” at Thompson while not acting that way towards “other similarly situated white and younger employees.”

John Post, a university spokesman, said in an email Monday the school hasn’t had a chance to review the lawsuit.

“It is our practice not to comment on pending lawsuits,” Post said.

The eight-page lawsuit claims Ottman was “systematically changing” Thompson’s schedule “to ensure” that he couldn’t attend college courses or training classes while giving other employees preference in choosing their shifts, and Ottman — the lawsuit misspells his name as “Ottoman” — “would often state that he was happy to accept Plaintiff’s resignation whenever he was ready.”

The lawsuit states Thompson asked for help from a university official in August 2017, and afterwards “Chief Ottoman’s harassing conduct was worse than before.”

Thompson was told in September 2017 he was terminated from his job “because of a call he answered involving an intoxicated non-student,” the lawsuit states.

Post didn’t respond to a question s asking why Thompson was terminated from his job.

The lawsuit seeks reinstatement with back pay and unspecified damages. The attorney for Thompson is Troy Gaston with the Greenwood law firm Walters, Gaston, Allison & Parker.