PHILADELPHIA - A lieutenant with the Philadelphia Police Department has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was discriminated against because he is white.
Marc Hayes sued the city on Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He says the police department stressed "changing the culture" to make it more diverse in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd murder by Minnesota officers.
"The City of Philadelphia treated Plaintiff disparately or pretextually in the terms and conditions of his employment compared with the way non-Caucasian employees who were accused of engaging in the same, similar or worse conduct were treated," the suit says.
Hayes was fired for alleged sexual harassment of two female police officers while he was a lieutenant and scheduled to be promoted to captain. Hayes had sent texts with photos of bestiality in 2018.
As a result of his grievance with the process, Hayes was reinstated - a decision affirmed by the Commonwealth Court earlier this year. His civil suit notes a Black inspector accused of sexually assaulting three female police officers earned a favorable ruling in arbitration with Philadelphia and the City did not appeal the arbitrator's decision, though it is still appealing Hayes' case to the state Supreme Court.
Hayes' lawyer is Steven Feinstein of Feinstein & Fioravanti. Judge Gerald McHugh has been assigned the case.