Appeal is pending in YPD hiring lawsuit

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A lawsuit challenging the city’s practice of hiring police based on race and sex is still crawling through the courts nearly three years after it was filed.

Youngstown attorney Dennis Haines filed the lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Oct. 2005 on behalf of James Conroy (white), who took the civil service test for police in 2003, and ranked No. 6 among those who took the test, but was not hired.

Instead the city hired George Wallace (black), Nancy Tipple (white), and Dorothy Johnson (black), who ranked No. 10, No. 13 and No. 127, respectively, on the same exam. They were hired as patrol officers in June 2005. Their names appeared on a separate list of 28 minorities, which includes white women, with Johnson being No. 19 on that list.

The city retained outside counsel, Atty. Neil D. Schor, to defend the hiring practice. Schor filed a motion asking for the suit to be dismissed without a trial. Haines filed his opposition.

Judge Durkin, after reviewing the written arguments presented by both sides, denied the motion.

The city filed an appeal that’s now pending at the 7th District Court of Appeals, but that won’t stop the lawsuit from going forward.

Schor said this past week that the only matter that could be appealed is the judge’s decision not to remove former Mayor George M. McKelvey, Mayor Jay Williams and the officers, Wallace, Tipple and Johnson from the lawsuit. Williams was added as a defendant when he became mayor.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on vindy.com