YOUNGSTOWN POLICE Amended suit calls for hiring

A former cop wants back pay and compensatory damages.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The lawyer representing a high scorer on the police civil service exam who was bypassed for minorities wants the city to "refrain from discrimination" on the basis of race and sex.
In an amended complaint filed Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Youngstown attorney Dennis Haines wants the city to hire his client, who is white, and not make permanent the hiring of a black man, white woman and black woman.
The three, hired in June 2005, ranked No. 10, No. 13 and No. 127, respectively, on the civil service test given in 2003.
Haines represents James Conroy, who ranked No. 6 on the civil service test. Conroy, a former city police officer, was terminated in 2000, was rehired and then resigned in a settlement in 2001.
Two lists created
The city, before hiring the three officers last summer, created two lists, one for white men and one for minorities. Haines said the civil service commission was supposed to send the hiring authority -- the mayor -- the names of 10 candidates standing highest on the list.
Haines said the city violated state law, which prohibits an employer from discriminating on the basis of race and sex. The lawyer said in court papers the hirings last summer were the result of an unconstitutional custom.
The pending civil lawsuit asks that Conroy be hired and given back pay. It also asks in excess of $25,000 in compensatory damages and attorney fees.
Defendants in suit
The lawsuit names as defendants Mayor Jay Williams, former Mayor George M. McKelvey, the city and the patrol officers hired -- George Wallace, Nancy Tipple and Dorothy Johnson.
The two lists created by the civil service commission were sent to then-Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr., who recommended Wallace, Tipple and Johnson to McKelvey. McKelvey then hired them.