Former trooper files lawsuit

January 29, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Matt Johnson says his boss allowed racist jokes.

COLUMBUS — The Ohio State Highway Patrol, embarrassed last year by troopers’ taking part in a prank involving what looked like a Ku Klux Klan outfit, faces new allegations of racist behavior.

Former trooper Matt Johnson accuses his old boss and another trooper of making or allowing racist jokes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Ohio’s Court of Claims in Columbus.

Johnson, who is white, accuses trooper Eric Wlodarsky of making racist comments about him because his ex-wife was married to a black man and because he has biracial relatives.

Johnson, who is seeking damages of more than $25,000, alleges his former supervisor ignored his complaints about the comments and then set out to fire him.

All three worked at the Highway Patrol Post in Mansfield. Wlodarsky later transferred to the Sandusky post where he got fired for taking part in a KKK-type costume prank.

A patrol investigation found that he took a photo of another trooper who was wearing a white cone, mask and cloth, on the day before Martin Luther King Day last January. He was reinstated in November when an arbitrator ruled that the firing violated a union contract.

Johnson’s lawsuit isn’t related to the costume prank, but it does dredge up new allegations of racist behavior within the patrol.

The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the patrol and is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, had not been aware of the filing, said Tom Hunter, a spokesman for the department. It is their policy not to comment on pending lawsuits, he said.

The lawsuit said the racist comments began in 2006 and occurred over several months. Johnson said that his boss, Lt. Michael Vinson, once encouraged Wlodarsky to repeat a racist joke so that several others at work could hear it.

Vinson later set out to fire Johnson after he complained, the lawsuit said.

Johnson was fired in 2007 after he was accused of a couple of minor infractions, said his attorney, Michael Crevling.

Crevling said Johnson’s punishment was much more severe than Wlodarsky faced.

Vinson said Wednesday he was not aware of the lawsuit and would not comment.

There was no telephone listing for Wlodarsky.