Sheriff to appeal jury's decision

WARREN — Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere says his office plans to appeal a federal jury’s recent ruling that a job bidding procedure used by the sheriff’s department is discriminatory to female jailers.

A jury ruled two weeks ago on a civil suit filed in 2002 that using two seniority lists — one female and one male — for job bidding purposes is discriminatory. It later awarded damages of $475,000 to seven female officers affected by the policy.

The sheriff’s department presented its budget request to the county commissioners last week. Sheriff’s officials included a request for five additional jailers at a cost of about about $175,000 annually in response to the jury’s decision.

Altiere said Tuesday that many issues are still unknown, such as whether the commissioners will approve funding the additional jailers.

Another question, he said, is how the department can change its staffing procedures to satisfy the jury and also 1990 federal court consent decree. That 1990 decree ordered the department to provide an adequate number of female jailers to supervise female inmates.