A Euless police officer is suing the city for sexual discrimination and retaliation.
Kimberly Parker claims that she was passed over numerous times for a promotion within the department.
The lawsuit details that Parker started working for the department in April 1993 as a reserve officer then was promoted to a full-time officer in July.
The lawsuit goes on to state, "After Parker completed her field training, Chief Gary McKamie and Capt. Harland Westmoreland had a meeting with Parker in which McKamie told her that he knew there would be problems with men and women working together, asked about her marital status, and told her it would be in her best interest to get married."
The lawsuit also states in 1998 Parker applied for a position on the DEA Task Force. Personnel from the DEA did the interviews and ultimately Parker was hired for the position. However Parker alleges that Chief McKamie made a comment to her that “if it was up to him, he would never send a female to a drug force, especially a mother.”
Two years later, Parker transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department where she worked from 2000 until 2008 when she became a Senior Corporal in patrol. Parker claims that there were also two open Senior Corporal positions within the CID department and that she would have rather stayed in the same department, instead of going back to patrol. The lawsuit claims that Sergeant Gary Landers, who was over CID at the time, requested a male officer take the Corporal test. The lawsuit goes on to say that the officer declined, telling Landers that he had much less experience than Parker. The lawsuit then details Landers telling the male officer "you are going to be one of my Senior Corporals,” and Parker says that is exactly what happened.
Parker then served one year in the patrol division and was assigned to the community service division. Sergeant Landers then became Captain over the community service division. At that time, two Sergeant positions were open. Parker says she tested for the Sergeant positions and ranked second out of four people on the objective written test. Parker then claims that she dropped to fourth rank after the oral examinations were done. Parker says she ask a member of the testing committee what happened and that he told her that “Euless is not ready for you or any woman to be a Sergeant.”
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Parker filed a discrimination and retaliation charge with the EEOC in December 2014, clearing the way for a lawsuit.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports that Chief Gary McKamie was the Euless Chief of Police from 1993 until 1999. He was then named Deputy City Manager. He retired from the city in 2015.
NBC 5 has reached out to the City of Euless and the Euless Police Department for comment about the lawsuit, but so far neither have responded.
