High court upholds HPD officer’s victory
His discrimination verdict against department stands
The U.S. Supreme Court ended an eight-year legal brawl this week between the city of Houston and a police officer who faced department retaliation in a decision that will force the city to pay $150,000 in damages.
The decision issued late Monday lets stand a lower court ruling in favor of Houston Police Officer Christopher M. Zamora.
“After eight years, the Supreme Court has affirmed a jury’s verdict that Chris Zamora was a victim of retaliation,” exulted Kim Ogg, the lead attorney on the case, at a news conference Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in downtown Houston.
“It’s a very important verdict because any governmental agency willing to violate its own police officers’ rights is likely to be willing to violate citizens’ rights,” Ogg said later, adding that the case “has implications for law enforcement across the nation, that the ‘Code of Silence’ will not be allowed to be used against police officers as employees when they want to report wrongdoing within their ranks.”
The saga began in late 2007, when Zamora’s father, HPD Lt. Manuel Zamora, filed a class action with more than two dozen other Latino officers arguing that HPD was discriminating against them and passing them over for promotion.
Then 24 years old and a rising star in the department, Zamora was transferred out of the department’s “Crime Reduction Unit” to night patrol the following March. He joined his father’s
suit in September 2008, arguing that he had been retaliated against because of his father’s lawsuit.
The same year, he was selected as HPD’s South Patrol Officer of the Year and was named Officer of the Year by The 100 Club, a nonprofit group that supports the families of officers killed in the line in duty.
The younger Zamora was later accused of lying during an internal affairs investigation into a complaint filed by his father over his son’s removal from the division. Zamora was suspended for 10 days — a suspension that was ultimately overturned.
Alleged retaliation
Zamora claimed the transfer and internal affairs investigation were retaliatory because he aired his complaints about the department.
“This victory is loud and clear that retaliation and discrimination exists in the police department,” said Johnny Mata, president of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice and a frequent critic of the department.
Ogg’s assertion of a “Code of Silence” existing within the department rankled current and former officers.
“There is no such thing (as a Code of Silence), and the fact Kim Ogg is claiming that just shows … her complete ignorance,” said Houston Police Officers’ Union President Ray Hunt.
Former Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland likewise disputed her claims.
“If there was a code of silence, you wouldn’t have 70 percent of all internal affairs complaints being generated on police by each other,” he scoffed.
Over the years, Zamora’s co-defendants dropped out of the case as their funds ran out. Manuel Zamora lost his case, which had been filed on civil rights grounds.
He retired in 2013 with an honorable discharge from the department and more than 30 years of service.
Zamora’s retaliation case was initially dismissed by a district judge, a decision that was reversed on appeal.
In 2012, a jury sided with Zamora and awarded him $378,000, but he was forced to return to court for a second trial after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate employment case established a greater burden of proof on plaintiffs such as Zamora. A jury in 2013 ordered that Zamora be paid $150,000. Last year, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling.
Increased liability
City officials said the decision could expose public and private organizations to greater liability.
A federal judge still must decide how much the city must pay in attorneys’ fees and future compensatory damages, which would easily rise into the millions of dollars, Ogg said.
In the meantime, Zamora, now 32, remains assigned to night patrol. He believes he will be unable to ever advance within the department or transfer to an investigative unit, his lawyers said.
He declined to talk to the media Tuesday.
His father, however, had a message for those accused of retaliating against his son.
“Find another job,” he said. “They’re not doing the job they were sworn to do. They lack the moral courage and the ethics. … And they’re not doing the citizens of Houston any good.”