Massachusetts police detective awarded more than $4 million in sex discrimination lawsuit – Law Officer

BOSTON  — Kathleen E. Donohue, a former detective with the Watertown Police Department, was awarded by a jury more than $4 million from a lawsuit that claimed she was subjected to demeaning and sexist comments at work and rebuked for speaking up about dangerous conduct by other officers during the search for a Boston Marathon bombing suspect, according to reports.

The Middlesex Superior Court jury on Thursday awarded Donohue $3.36 million in back pay, future earnings and compensatory damages, as well as another $1 million in punitive damages, lawyers involved in the civil action said, according to The Boston Globe.

Donohue became a police officer with the department in 1998, and later became the agency’s first female detective in 2002. Her discrimination lawsuit was filed in May 2019. She alleged in the complaint that she was subjected to inappropriate and demeaning sexual comments over the course of several years, AP News reported.

Donohue was present when Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat in a Watertown yard in April 2013. Multiple officers fired their weapons, but Donohue held her fire as bullets whizzed by her head and hit the ground in front of her, she said in the complaint.

The police detective said superiors berated her upon reporting that she was endangered by rounds fired by fellow officers. A state inquiry concluded in 2015 that some officers used poor weapons discipline and endangered others during the arrest, according to AP News.

Douglas Louison, an attorney representing Watertown, told the Herald in 2020, “We deny the allegations and there was never any attempt to bully her.”

Peter Duffy, an attorney for the Watertown police union, declined to comment on the lawsuit shortly after it was filed.

Following Thursday’s jury verdict, Donohue’s lead attorney, Ellen Zucker, said she hopes the case will lead to “equality.”

“This verdict sends a broader message that work has to be done to make sure women in policing are treated with dignity and respect and equality,” Zucker said. “I hope this important moment will allow police departments to reflect on the way they do business, and change for the good of all of us.”

Louison said the verdict was disappointing for the city and there will likely be an appeal, WHDH in Boston reported. 

“It does not reflect the professionalism and respect that exists for the women and men who work within the Watertown Police Department today,” he said.