Black man arrested by boss's police chief friend after complaining about discrimination at work is awarded $600,000
Michael Fesser says he was 'terrified' to return to the small town where he was arrested following issues with racial discrimination
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Your support makes all the difference.A black man who was wrongfully arrested after reporting racial discrimination to his boss — who then sent racist texts about the man to local police officers — has been awarded a $600,000 (£462,723) payout.
Michael Fesser, 48, said in a new interview that he was “terrified” to go back to the town of West Linn, Oregon following the false arrest.
A friend of Mr Fesser’s boss, who served as the small town’s police chief, used local officers as a “personal posse” to implement an “old-boy-style racism” that involved arresting the father of eight without probable cause, according to his attorney.
The arrest occurred after Mr Fesser told his boss at A&B Towing in Southeast Portland about issues with other coworkers making racist comments and using racial slurs.
At one point, the other employees asked Mr Fesser for his opinion about a Confederate flag hooked on to a vehicle in the towing lot, according to court records.
That’s when Mr Benson began texting his friend who headed the local police department, reportedly urging him to investigate unfounded claims that Mr Fesser was committing theft while managing the tow company’s car auctions.
Terry Timeus, the former West Linn police chief, told Mr Benson he would have the “case ready to go before Saturday” on 21 February 2017, just days before the police department began surveilling Mr Fesser while he worked.
Mr Benson cooperated with the police throughout the investigation, providing them with access to company video surveillance cameras and reportedly exchanging homophobic and racist comments about Mr Fesser in texts to a detective on the case.
Paul Buchanan, Mr Fesser’s lawyer, said in a statement to Oregon Live: “This case vividly illustrates a ready willingness on the part of the West Linn police to abuse the enormous power they have been given, and a casual, jocular, old-boy-style racism of the kind that we Oregonians tend to want to associate with the Deep South rather than our own institutions.”
The case was later dropped against Mr Fesser, but not before he was thrown in jail and accused of stealing from the company he had worked for since 2004.
Mr Fesser later told local news channel KGW that he felt “a little relief” after his lawyer secured the massive payout, one of the largest in the state’s history for a wrongful arrest, as well as a meeting with the local mayor to discuss the incident.
"I have forgiven those individuals in that community," Mr Fesser told the news outlet. "I've forgiven them but I haven't forgotten."
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