We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
A longtime Washington Post advertising employee is suing the paper for racial and age discrimination, claiming the paper fired him for being a middle-aged black man.
David DeJesus, 59, filed suit against the Post in July after he says was he unexpectedly fired in the summer of 2011, despite 18 years of “exemplary employment.” (Evan Gahr first reported on the case for the Daily Caller in September.)
The suit says DeJesus was replaced with a white man younger than 30 and that the Post has recently terminated the employment of at least 18 African-Americans over 40. The paper has undergone major staff reductions in recent years, and it’s unclear how many of these terminations are related to this.
After the Newspaper Guild intervened and filed a grievance on DeJesus’ behalf, an arbitrator ruled that the firing was groundless, and ordered the Post to employ him again and pay him for all the wages and benefits he lost while out of work.
On March 11, 2013, he was reinstated as an account manager, and his lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, says he still works there.
Now Morganroth says he’s suing for a “significant amount” of money in damages. (He wouldn’t specify the amount but said it’s more than $75,000.)
The case hasn’t received much public attention. The Post hasn’t reported on the case in its own pages. Last week, FishbowlDC posted about Gahr’s attempts to ask Post editor Marty Baron and other reporters and editors there why they haven’t covered the suit. They all allegedly hung up on Gahr at some point.
A spokeswoman for the Post tells City Desk the paper doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation and the paper doesn’t have a policy on how it covers cases it’s involved in.
Morganroth says there is a court-ordered mediation scheduled for mid-November to see if the two parties can resolve the case.
Read the complaint here:
[documentcloud url=”https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/809179-1-main.html”]
Photo by Darrow Montgomery