Federal judge orders Clark County to pay $1.3M+ in fees for discrimination suit

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Clark County has been ordered to pay an additional $1.3 million in legal fees to three Latino employees who sued the public works department for discrimination.

During the court case in June, Elias Peña, Isaiah Hutson and Ray Alanis accused non-Latino colleagues at the agency of making racist comments during their time working for the roads division starting in 2017.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed the lawsuit along with a Seattle law firm, alleged that one department supervisor used racial slurs when saying that Clark County had been “ruined” by the Latino community.

According to MALDEF, other county workers compared Latinos to “a cancer that needs to be cut out.” The organization also said all Latino employees in the Public Works department were assigned to the same road crew at one point when their colleagues would refer to them as the “brown crew” and the “‘landscaping crew’ who work for ‘their white masters.’”

Attorneys reported that Peña, Hutson and Alanis complained to the Human Resources department about racism in the workplace, but they were ignored.

In June, a federal jury dismissed the plaintiffs’ discrimination claims under Title VIII — but they found Clark County liable for the “hostile work environment” the three employees faced under Washington state’s anti-discrimination laws.

The plaintiffs were initially awarded $200,000 each in the case, but now, a federal judge has ordered the county to cover a portion of their legal fees as well.

On Dec. 1, U.S. District Judge David Estudillo ordered the county to pay Peña, Hutson and Alanis more than $1.3 million total in attorney fees and nearly $118,000 in non-taxable costs related to the case.

“Plaintiffs’ counsel took a risk in taking on this case, the outcome of which hinged in large part on whether the jury believed their clients over the numerous witnesses presented by Defendant,” Estudillo wrote. “The fact that the jury ultimately found for Plaintiffs reflects a significant degree of success on the part of Plaintiffs’ attorneys.”

In a statement to KOIN 6, a Clark County spokesperson said, “On Friday, the court issued orders awarding attorney fees and costs to Plaintiff’s as prevailing parties on one of six discrimination claims they filed against the county. In light of the Plaintiffs’ verdict on the Washington Law Against Discrimination claim at trial, which provides for such fee-shifting, these were orders the parties had been waiting for the court to rule on since July.”