Continued: Police officer, department go to court over discrimination

More than three years ago Giovanni Veliz, a Minneapolis police sergeant and well-known advocate for the Latino community, took a stand. He filed several complaints with the city's civil rights department in October 2005, accusing his colleagues of discrimination and violating a mediation agreement to improve police-community relations.

Two months later, Veliz and seven other sergeants applied for a spot on the state's gang strike force. When he didn't get the job, Veliz filed another complaint with the civil rights department claiming he was passed over for retaliatory reasons. The department agreed.

Veliz eventually went public and sued the Police Department. Settlement talks went nowhere. His once-promising career hit a wall.

In a surprising and rare move, the city decided to throw down its own gauntlet and go to trial. Court papers say three police officials weren't aware of Veliz's complaints when they rejected his job application. In July, a federal judge refused the city's motion to dismiss the suit.

Veliz's trial gets underway Friday in federal court in St. Paul, and is expected to last a week. Observers of department politics believe a favorable verdict for Veliz will force the current police administration to change how it does business. If he loses, the officer's supporters fear a wedge will be driven into the Latino community and tarnish his years of outreach work.

"He has had a tough go of it," said John Klassen, Veliz's attorney. "He is an honorable man who believes in serving his community as an officer. And this has caused him a lot of pain and anguish."

Klassen is also representing five high-ranking black Minneapolis police officers who sued their department last year because of an alleged long-term pattern of racial discrimination. A proposed $2 million settlement was pulled off the table in July.

Several of the police officials expected to testify in the Veliz trial are accused in that lawsuit of denying overtime, education and promotion opportunities to officers of color. City spokesman Matt Laible declined to comment on pending litigation.

Veliz was hired by the Police Department in 1992. He has served in a variety of assignments, including assistant to the chief, and a member of the Fifth Precinct community response team and the unit that ensures compliance with a mediation agreement to improve relations with the community.

With the response team, he supervised at least 10 officers who were involved in more than 120 drug and weapon arrests, according to his civil rights complaint. He also did work with an FBI task force on organized crime and was often sought out because of his Spanish-speaking skills.

As assistant to the chief, Veliz was asked to "communicate on behalf of the department" with the city's Hispanic community. He was repeatedly made aware of complaints by citizens who alleged their civil rights were violated by officers and brought them to senior department officials, suit documents said. At one point, he was told "to stop taking so many complaints," said Jessie Saavedra, a member of Minneapolis' Latino Advisory Committee to the Mayor and the City Council.

Even with the turmoil surrounding his civil rights complaint, Veliz applied for the opening on the gang strike force. Then Deputy Chief Sharon Lubinski (now Assistant Chief), Capt. Mike Martin (now a precinct inspector) and Lt. Andy Smith (now in charge of the department's Violent Offender Task Force) were responsible for deciding which applicant would be recommended for the position.

They selected Jeff Jindra, a white officer who had been a sergeant for nine months. In her affidavit, Lubinski outlined why he was more qualified than Veliz. Besides nine years with Minneapolis, Jindra had worked 12 years for the Brooklyn Park Police Department. Jindra also worked in the city's Fourth Precinct, which has extensive violent crime compared to the precinct Veliz was assigned.

But in February 2007, the civil rights department ruled the Police Department's decision to deny Veliz's application was based on race and retaliatory reasons. The ruling cited that had an appropriate amount of experience for the job and that four non-Hispanic sergeants were later transferred to the strike force.

"Knowing his history, I don't know why he wasn't selected," said St. Paul police sergeant John Lozoya, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Latino Peace Officers Association. "This case is a critical moment for all minority officers."

Lubinski, Martin and Smith said they were not aware of Veliz's complaints when they turned him down for the job. But former Minneapolis Police Chief Bill McManus said in a deposition that it was "not believable" for any high ranking officer to deny knowledge of the charges because of extensive media coverage.

Klassen, Veliz's attorney, said he voluntarily removed the race allegations in the suit and will focus on Veliz's claim of retaliation "to streamline the trial process." In July, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle denied the city's motion to dismiss the suit. In his ruling, he cited the statements of two Minneapolis police lieutenants involved in the black officers' suit who said there is a "culture of discrimination and retaliation" within the department against officers of color who complain.

Ron Edwards, former co-chair of the Police Community Relations Council, said community members believed Veliz was accessible and an excellent facilitator, but he probably fell out of favor with the police side of the council because "they were suspicious he wasn't holding up the party line and massaging critical information." Edwards said he is stunned the city is taking this case to trial.

Saavedra, who has known Veliz for five years, is glad the judge believed this case has merit to go forward.

"There were times Gio thought about dropping the suit," he said. "But he needed to stand his ground."

David Chanen • 612-673-4465