March 03--St. Cloud will pay $73,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former St. Cloud police officer who said he suffered discrimination because of his sexual orientation.
Sean Lathrop sued the city and several members of the police department in federal court. The parties met late last month in Duluth at a court-ordered mediation facilitated by a federal magistrate judge. That's when the framework of a settlement was reached. The case had been scheduled to go to trial March 19.
The League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust agreed to pay $73,000 to Lathrop and his attorneys on behalf of the city, said Patricia Beety, an attorney from the LMC who represented the city.
The city admits no liability or wrongdoing in settling the case, she said.
"The city fully supports its police administrators and officials and holds firm to its position throughout this case -- Mr. Lathrop was treated fairly and nondiscriminatorily throughout his term of employment as a police officer in the city police department. The city believes none of Mr. Lathrop's claims are supported by facts or law," Beety said.
But the reality is that taking the case to a trial would incur many more hours of legal work to defend the city against Lathrop's claims, Beety said.
"(The league) estimates that even with an outcome in favor of the city, the costs of continuing this litigation through trial would far exceed the amount settled upon," Beety said.
Messages left for Lathrop's attorneys were not returned. The settlement came after U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank denied three of the five requests by the city for summary judgment. Frank granted the city's motions to dismiss Lathrop's claims of conspiracy and that his First Amendment rights had been violated.
Frank let stand for trial claims by Lathrop of discrimination and retaliation by the department and that he was denied equal protection when he worked for St. Cloud Police Department from September 2006 through April 2010.
Copyright 2012 - St. Cloud Times, Minn.