A discrimination lawsuit has been filed by eight Ramsey County corrections officers of color who said their boss tried to keep them away from former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is now in jail after choking George Floyd to death last month.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the eight officers filed the suit with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights after a decision was made by jail Superintendent Steve Lydon to bar any contact between Chauvin and people of color who worked at the facility.

The newspaper managed to get a copy of the complaint, which states all minority officers were moved to a completely different floor as Chauvin was being brought to the jail.

“I understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate — solely because of the color of our skin. I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate,” a Black sergeant wrote in the suit.

Star-Tribune reporters also obtained documents from the investigation conducted by the sheriff’s office. In a statement to the investigating officers, Lydon said he made the decision just 10 minutes before Chauvin arrived at the jail and did it because he wanted to protect the jail's employees of color.

“Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings,” Lydon allegedly told investigators before he was subsequently demoted.

Despite him saying the order was in the best interest of jail employees of color, Lydon's actions alarmed people working there. The Star-Tribune reported that in the discrimination suit, the Black sergeant said he was in the middle of patting down Chauvin on May 29 when Lydon told him to step away. He had a white officer finish the procedure.

The unnamed Black sergeant was then told that all employees of color at the jail had been moved off of the fifth floor, where Chauvin was being held by himself. All of the officers of color were replaced with white officers.

The decision was so offensive to the employees of color that some began to cry as they congregated to complain about the decision, according to the complaint. Some even openly contemplated quitting because of Lydon's decision. One officer called it a "segregation order."

The group of eight eventually met with Lydon, who denied he was racist but subsequently reversed his decision less than an hour later. Lydon's superiors were notified about what happened from a union member working at the jail, and he defended his actions by saying being around Chauvin would "create acute racialized trauma” for employees of color.

“My fellow officers of color and I were, and continue to be, deeply humiliated, distressed, and negatively impacted by the segregation order,” the eight officers said in the complaint.

In one of the most alarming charges in the complaint, the eight officers said they came in the next day and looked at surveillance footage where a white lieutenant was seen going in to Chauvin's cell and sitting with him, offering his smartphone so he could call someone.

This violates a number of jail policies, according to the complaints cited by the Star-Tribune.

Chauvin has since been moved to the Oak Park Heights maximum security prison.

The admissions from Minnesota officials found in the Star-Tribune story come in stark contrast to how jail officials previously responded to rumors about the same topic weeks ago. Stories about the Black officers at the jail being removed from the fifth floor were aired on May 30 but were seen as rumors.

A reporter from Reuters asked a spokesperson for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office about the rumors and was told there is “no truth to the report," adding that Chauvin “was treated according to procedure.” Reuters declared the stories false but has since amended its article in light of the Star-Tribune report.

Chauvin was arrested earlier this month and is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter following weeks of protests after he killed Floyd on a widely seen video.

The Black sergeant spoke to the Star-Tribune anonymously, saying the order was humiliating and the denials after the fact made the eight officers look like liars. Undersheriff Bill Finney has replaced Lydon, but prison officials would not say where Lydon has been moved.

“I think they deserve to have employment decisions made based on performance and behavior. Their main goal is to make sure this never happens again,” said Bonnie Smith, a Minneapolis attorney representing the eight employees.

“The damage had been done. These jobs are super sensitive, highly dangerous at times and involve an immense amount of trust. They struggle walking into a building where the superintendent is still affiliated,” Smith added.

Steve-Lydon

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