Brockton Police Sergeant Files Suit Against City, State for USERRA Rights Violation

Brockton Police Sergeant Files Suit Against City, State for USERRA Rights Violation

A shocking new lawsuit has been filed by Brockton Police Sergeant Brian Benvie against the city of Brockton and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, alleging that they violated his rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

According to the complaint, Benvie, an Iraq war veteran, took a make-up promotional exam upon his return from active duty military service in 2007. His score placed him at the top of the promotional list, and he was promoted to sergeant in July 2008. However, it was later discovered that another patrolman with a lower score had been promoted to sergeant in October 2007.

After initially refusing, the city eventually retroactively adjusted Benvie’s promotion to the date he would have been promoted but for his military service. Nevertheless, the defendants failed to give full effect to that promotion by denying Benvie the opportunity to take the lieutenants’ promotional exam.

The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department, seeks to provide Benvie with a makeup exam for the lieutenants’ promotional exam that he was not permitted to take; place Benvie on the appropriate eligibility list based on his score on the lieutenants’ exam; and, should his score merit it, retroactively promote Benvie to lieutenant with all of the rights, benefits, and seniority that he would have enjoyed if he had been permitted to take the exam in October 2008 and had achieved the same score.

No service member should miss out on opportunities for advancement in the civilian workplace because he or she answered a call to duty, said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. We will use all of the tools at our disposal to protect the rights of those men and women who serve our country and make sacrifices to protect our rights.

The case is being handled by the Employment Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen M. Ortiz said, Our service men and women make the ultimate sacrifice by serving our country. We cannot allow employers to disadvantage them based on their military service or military status.