Jury determines St. Louis police denied an officer his promotion because he's gay
Despite the police chief’s efforts, a jury determined Friday that Sgt. Keith Wildhaber was denied his ‘white shirt’ (or a promotion to lieutenant), due to him being ‘too gay.’ Now, the St. Louis County Police Department owes him almost $20 million in damages, according to St. Louis Today.
Sgt. Wildhaber claimed that homophobia was rampant in the police force, and specifically named police chief Jon Belmar as the enforcer of this culture.
As we reported in 2017, Wildhaber has been with the department since 1994, receiving top marks on all the tests and reviews needed to secure a promotion to lieutenant. A member of the police civilian review board allegedly told him that if he wanted to go any further in the department, “The command staff has a problem with your sexuality… you should tone down your gayness.”
Wildhaber was reportedly passed up for 23 promotions. He was transferred across the county once he filed his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, claiming his civil rights were violated. He subsequently filed more claims based on the department’s actions.
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Is it any wonder why some may choose not to be openly gay?
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Then there were the lies, the most dramatic of which came out of the mouth of Capt. Guy Means, who is Wildhaber’s current supervisor.
On Thursday, Means testified that he had never met Donna Woodland, a police widow who had testified that Means told her, “He’s never going to get a white shirt. He’s too gay.”
On the witness stand, Means denied saying that, and he went further. He said he had never met Woodland and didn’t know who she was.
Late Friday afternoon, Woodland took the stand again and produced a picture of her and Means at the fundraising event in question. In the picture, the captain is giving a big bear hug to the woman, the sort of hug you don’t give to strangers. She also produced a receipt for a custom picture of his badge she had bought for him for $147. She said it hangs in a frame in his office, where she’s been, where they’ve talked about family, life and the death of loved ones.
“He strolled in here in his white shirt, and he lied,” Riggan said of Means. “He blatantly perjured himself. … How credible are the rest of their witnesses? You don’t think they sent other people in here to lie? They will stop at nothing to bury this case.”
At that point, the county’s attorney, Mike Hughes, sensing the sinking ship, rose to object.
“The defense objects to the continuous references to lying,” Hughes pleaded with the judge.
He was overruled.
