Sgt. Deon Jones, a gay, 24-year veteran officer with the Department of Corrections (DOC) in Washington, D.C. got a big payout with the district’s decision last week to award him $500,000 to resign, effectively immediately.

The city admitted no fault in a lawsuit Jones brought that accused department and city officials of anti-gay discrimination.

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It’s the third lawsuit Jones has filed against the same parties over his long tenure with the department, and the latest to yield a settlement. He previously sued in 2006 for discrimination and harassment, with the city settling in 2011. They settled another dispute over his treatment at the DOC in 2019.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the latest complaint in 2021, along with the white-shoe law firm WilmerHale, representing the corrections officer.

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Jones first began working for the DOC in 1992, was laid off in 2001, and returned in 2006. He retires from the city agency as a medical liaison with the rank of sergeant.

“This is a horrific pattern of discrimination and retaliation that was known to the highest-level officials and ignored,” Scott Michelman, the Legal Director of ACLU District of Columbia, said in 2021 when the latest suit was filed.

While working at the DOC-managed D.C. Jail, Jones “endured pervasive acts of harassment based on his sexual orientation” that were so bad, he eventually suffered more than 15 panic attacks and was diagnosed both with PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder, the ACLU said in a summary of the case that accompanied the complaint.

The lawsuit named Jones’ supervisors as well as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) as defendants who enacted or failed to stop the “loss of wages, loss of benefits, mental anguish, emotional distress, personal humiliation, indignity, embarrassment, inconvenience, stigma, pain and suffering, and damages to [Jones’s] personal and professional reputations.”

Jones alleged that in addition to regular abuse and threats from inmates, his own co-workers and fellow correctional staff called him slurs and verbally abused him: some told Jones they “don’t like f**got[s] or sissies,” and “hate working with f**gots.” The complaint alleged he was repeatedly called “f**got, “old f**got,” “f**got mess,” and “d**k eater” by DOC co-workers and even senior staff.

Not only did Jones receive verbal disrespect, but he often had his “safety at risk” because other officers refused “to answer his calls for assistance over the internal radio system when he was responding to inmates or attempting to execute his duties,” according to the complaint.

Jones also alleged that he was “almost raped” when he was left alone in an elevator with “an inmate who said he would cut my throat.” He said a supervisor was on duty at the time, but did nothing to help him.

“For years, I showed up to do my job with professionalism and pride, only to be targeted because of who I am,” Jones said after the award was announced. “This settlement affirms that my pain mattered — and that creating hostile workplaces has real consequences.”  

Added the former officer: “For anyone who is LGBTQ or living with a disability and facing workplace discrimination or retaliation, know this: you are not powerless. You have rights. And when you stand up, you can achieve justice.”

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