Black officers make case against Nassau in court

A group of black Nassau correction officers who say county officials have not lived up to the terms of a long-standing federal order to improve racial hiring and properly administer an affirmative action job in the sheriff's department began to make their case in a Brooklyn courthouse Monday.

In a contentious first day of the hearing, attorneys for the Nassau County Sheriff Guardians, a group of black correction officers, and a lawyer representing the county objected dozens of times to the other side's questioning and failed to finish with the day's sole witness. At one point, the federal magistrate called the proceedings "tedious" and threatened to stop the hearing, saying attorneys had failed to adequately discuss "in good faith" the production of documents or who would be called to testify.

In February, attorneys for the Guardians filed a letter in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn seeking monetary damages and compliance with a 1998 decree. That legally binding agreement settled a 1992 lawsuit alleging discrimination in hiring, and the unequal treatment of black employees, the Guardians president has said.

The letter said the sheriff's office has marginalized the role of a "special assistant to the sheriff for affirmative action," appointed under the decree. The position was intended to investigate allegations of bias and help with recruitment and community outreach. The job was created in part to ensure the agency's compliance with the county's affirmative action policy.

Much of Monday's testimony centered on the county's hiring this year of Andre Guilty, a one-time rapper and cable television producer, for the county sheriff's affirmative action position.

Guilty is a well-known figure in Hempstead and a former supporter of former Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Guilty switched allegiance during current County Executive Ed Mangano's successful run for the seat last year.

Under questioning by plaintiff's attorney Bonita Zelman, county Civil Service Commission personnel specialist Deborah Welt said hiring documents entered into evidence Monday indicated that county commissioners knew that Guilty had prior criminal convictions at the time they approved his provisional hiring.

Welt also acknowledged that a job application signed by Guilty indicated that he had no such criminal past. A letter Zelman said was from a county official recommending that Guilty be paid $71,662 annually, based on his job experience, was also entered into evidence.

The minimum salary for the job of affirmative action specialist III is $48,600, Welt said.

After the hearing, which U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York Joan Azrack ended abruptly before ordering lawyers to her chambers, an attorney representing the county, Joshua Jemal, said the agency has always been in compliance with the decree. He also said Guilty acknowledged on the first of two applications that he had a misdemeanor criminal conviction from 1993, and that a subsequent application related to an exam required for the position referred back to the previous application.

Jemal declined to say what the conviction was for, or whether Guilty might have had other convictions, as Zelman said in court. "This was a provisional appointment. [Guilty] was hired through the civil service process properly, and we followed all the civil service guidelines," Jemal said.

The hearing is set to resume Friday.