Ex–police recruit wins harassment suit

A former Oakland police recruit has been awarded $500,000 by a jury for being discriminated against on the basis of his sexual orientation and dismissed for being involved in an investigation of three other recruits accused of antigay harassment, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Scott Hoey-Custock maintained that the Oakland police department intentionally evaluated him more harshly than other recruits in his 1996 police class after someone complained to internal affairs that three other recruits were making antigay remarks and gestures toward Hoey-Custock. The three were placed on leave, and his trainers became “increasingly hostile” toward him for being a snitch, Hoey-Custock said. He was the only trainee in his class who was failed. He has since become an officer on the San Francisco police force. “I think it’s a vindication,” Hoey-Custock said of the verdict. “The way they treated me was just wrong. I am righting the wrong.”