Eight Ramsey County correctional officers have been awarded a nearly $1.5 million dollar settlement after they were not allowed to guard the jail cell of Derek Chauvin in May of 2020.
The officers alleged that Steve Lydon, then the Superintendent of the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, "segregated" them and prevented them from doing their jobs, "because of the color of their skin."
In the lawsuit they alleged that he pulled them from duty, replaced with them white officers, and barred them from the fifth floor where Chauvin was being held.
On Tuesday, the county's board of commissioners apologized to the officers and approved a $1.46 million settlement.
The actions taken by the sheriff's office leadership that day were more than just wrong,” said Boar Chair Trista Matas-Castillo. “They were racist, heinous, highly disrespectful, and completely out of line with Ramsey County's vision and values. No one should ever have questioned your ability to perform your job based on the color of your skin.”
The officers, who are Black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander American, and multiracial, say Lydon did not trust them to carry out their responsibilities because of their race.
District 6 Commissioner Jim McDonough said this is a clear case of institutional racism.
“So many times individuals will challenge us when we talk about institutional racism,” McDonough said. “They will challenge us and not want to acknowledge it. Or they don't understand or accept that there is institutional racism, and it's staring you right in the face.”
The board specifically called out Lydon, along with Ramsey County Sherriff Bob Fletcher, who they said never addressed these offenses. Lydon has said he removed those officers out of "care and concern" for them, but he reversed the order within 45 minutes and he was later demoted.
“The lack of any real apology from the sheriff's office, and the fact that Steve Lydon remains to this day an appointed employee within the office reflects poor leadership and perpetuates the systematic racism that allowed us a decision like this to occur,” Matas-Castillo explained.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s office released a statement and did not apologize, saying rather the Sheriff's Office was not a named party in the lawsuit filed against Ramsey County, and consequently had no decision-making authority in the settlement.
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