COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The city of Columbus will cover attorney’s and other associated legal fees totaling more than $200,000 in a racial discrimination and retaliation case that yielded a former Columbus Division of Police lieutenant and current commander just $2 in damages. 

Columbus City Council voted Monday night 7-0 to disburse funds for the $216,732.71 bill after a federal court ordered the city to do so in May.

A jury last June found that the city both discriminated and retaliated against Columbus Police Lt. Melissa McFadden, who is Black. The division’s actions, according to the jury’s ruling, violated both the Civil Rights Act and the Ohio Revised Code. 

Initially relieved of duty in 2018 after a monthslong internal affairs investigation, McFadden was accused of creating a hostile work environment and making racially divisive comments on the job — bringing an “us against them” attitude toward Black versus white officers, according to the original investigation.

Although she denied many of the accusations, in a 2018 audio recording, she admitted she declined to give a Black sergeant lower marks.

“I don’t recall the exact conversation, but I do recall saying, ‘I don’t believe in Black-on-Black crime,’” McFadden said in the recording. 

Former Columbus police chief Kim Jacobs, at the time, recommended McFadden’s firing, which then-Columbus safety director Ned Pettus eventually overruled. 

McFadden filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. Southern District of Ohio, painting a different picture of the treatment encountered during her tenure.

The suit alleged McFadden was targeted by those above her when she assisted a Black officer in filing a complaint against a Columbus police sergeant, with one commander saying she would “take (McFadden) out” over McFadden’s involvement in filing the complaint. 

Another commander allegedly began to assemble comments against McFadden from other officers, and the lieutenant was eventually demoted and assigned to work in the police division’s property room. She was told she would remain there until she was “no longer either the subject or complainant in an EEO investigation.”

No other sergeants or lieutenants had been similarly reassigned when accused of violating discrimination policies and practices, the lawsuit alleged. 

McFadden asked, in her lawsuit, for at least $25,000 in damages. When the jury sided with her, it awarded her $2. 

The Monday night vote also comes as another lawsuit makes its way through federal court, this time against McFadden as well as a number of other defendants, including the city, two former public safety directors, Mayor Andrew Ginther and City Attorney Zach Klein.

Filed by a dozen Columbus police officers in February, the lawsuit again alleges McFadden advised a sergeant he would have “official” and “unofficial” evaluations because he was Black; that she admonished other Black officers, including by calling Black officers in interracial marriages “white woman lover(s),” and that she sought to divide white and Black officers.

“McFadden singled out new, Black officers and advised them they would be treated differently and unfairly because of race,” the lawsuit alleged.

Although the city did not directly settle with McFadden, council has approved a number of hefty settlements involving its public safety department in 2023 — including in wrongful death cases and an excessive force case.