The City of St. Louis undertook two separate searches and evaluated more than 30 candidates before announcing its selection of to lead the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Some seven months later, on July 31, Lt. Col. Michael Sack filed a lawsuit that alleged 鈥渁 history of racial discrimination against department employees, both African American and Caucasian.鈥�
Sack was one of two finalists for the job. His lawsuit was among the cases taken up Wednesday by St. Louis on the Air鈥檚 Legal Roundtable.
Sack鈥檚 lawsuit is at least the fourth example of a white St. Louis officer filing a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination. Since 2013, the city has paid multiple six-figure settlements to white officers. That includes paid in 2013 to Sgt. David Bonenberger. (Bonenberger subsequently sued the department a second time for retaliation, leading to a settlement in 2016, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.)
In 2017, St. Louis agreed to pay to Maj. Michael Caruso. More recently, in 2022, the city paid to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Lt. Col. Lawrence O鈥橳oole, who had accused the city of passing over him for chief because he is white.
Javad Khazaeli, a former prosecutor and founding member with the St. Louis firm Khazaeli Wyrsch, called Sack鈥檚 lawsuit a sign that 鈥淲e're in a very bizarre place in the criminal justice world in St. Louis鈥� and that 鈥渢here are people out there making the argument that the really oppressed people in America, in St. Louis, in the criminal justice system, are white police officers."
鈥淲e're getting into this cycle,鈥� he added, 鈥渨here these officers are arguing that they have a right to a job.鈥�
Dave Roland, the director of litigation at the Freedom Center of Missouri, noted that Sack鈥檚 argument for discrimination could be weakened in court by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones鈥� decision to hire a white police chief.
鈥淪he did ultimately end up hiring a white person to fill this role,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd so I think that makes this a very difficult case to win.鈥�
Along with Khazaeli and Roland, the Legal Roundtable included Susan McGraugh, director of the criminal defense legal clinic at St. Louis University School of Law. In addition to Sack鈥檚 lawsuit, they discussed a lawsuit challenging a state law that allows parents to be jailed if their children miss too much school, a judge鈥檚 order against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a local physician who is suing her former employer over its vaccine mandate.
To hear analyses of those cases from the Legal Roundtable, listen to St. Louis on the Air on , , or or by clicking the play button below.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by , , , and . is our production assistant. The audio engineer is . Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
