Sacramento County, Elk Grove district paid settlement to deputies for alleged racism
The Elk Grove Unified School District and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office have together paid a $255,000 settlement to a group of deputies who were allegedly barred from picking up extra shifts due to racism.
During a July 2017 meeting to assign which deputies would patrol upcoming high school football games, the district’s then-director of safety and security, Joseph Airoso, said several Black deputies were not allowed to work the games, according to a 2019 Sacramento Superior Court lawsuit filed by Carlton Duncan, Deborah Johnson and Anthony Jenkins.
In an email the following month, Airoso said the three Black deputies, which he called the “Soul Patrol,” could not work any school events, not just football games, reducing their income, the lawsuit alleged.
The email also said Dexter Powe, who is Black, would for the first time in 12 years not be patrolling Sheldon High School games, according to a lawsuit Powe filed in 2020, which is also covered by the settlement.
In May and November 2017, Airoso “inexplicably removed” Powe from a regularly assigned extra work shift for the district and replaced him with a white man, the Powe lawsuit alleged.
When the deputies complained, neither the district nor the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office took action, the lawsuit alleged.
Sacramento County spokeswoman Kim Nava and Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi declined to comment on the settlement. Elk Grove Unified School District spokeswoman Lisa Levasseur also declined comment on the story other than to say Airoso’s last day was in June 2021.
The settlement agreement, obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a Californian Public Records Act request, was signed in January 2023. The district paid $223,125, while the county paid $31,875 on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office.
The suits named the district, the Sheriff’s Office and Airoso as defendants. They claimed racial discrimination, retaliation and harassment, all in violation of the state Fair Employment and Housing Act. They also claimed wrongful termination.
This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
