Two Black Texas state troopers were awarded $1.6 million by a federal jury that found they were harassed, passed over for promotions and retaliated against because of their race. Jerald Sams and Jari McPherson alleged that their supervisors at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) subjected them to unlawful and discriminatory employment practices over several years in their lawsuit originally filed in 2020 in a U.S. District Court in Austin (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star). Former Texas State Trooper Jerald Sams (left) and Sgt. Jari McPherson (right), who remains employed with the Texas Department of Public Safety, sued the department for racial discrimination and were awarded $1.65 million by a federal jury on Jan. 29, 2026. (Photos: Jerald Sams Facebook profile, Janeth Jazzy McPherson Facebook profile) Sams, a 26-year veteran, served in the Mounted Patrol Unit of DPS since 2014 and developed the written manual for the unit’s operational procedures. He always received “meets expectations” or better ratings on his annual job performance evaluations, the complaint said. He claimed that in October 2017, he was falsely accused of making questionable leadership decisions by allegedly overworking the white officers within the unit and was then demoted by a white patrol chief, without ever being provided any evidence to support the demotion. A year later, a white lieutenant accused him of attempting to turn the Mounted Patrol unit into a “Buffalo Soldiers Unit,” an allegation he denied and found racially offensive. New York Cops Drag 80-Year-Old Black Woman from Car and Break Her Teeth After She Calls 911 for Help, Charging Her With Assault — Now She Wants Payback Then, in November 2017, a DPS Commander, Joe Ortiz, allegedly told Sams, “Can’t you see what the perception is with all of these African Americans that are on the Mounted Unit?” While Sams was trimming a horse’s hooves, Capt. Jeremiah Richards took a photo of him and texted it to his friend, then laughed as he read his friend’s response aloud: “I have never seen a Black man doing that before.” Sams found what Richards said and did “racially derogatory” and “belittling” and filed a complaint with the Texas Office of Inspector General (OIG), which, 15 months later, sustained his complaint of racial discrimination against Richards. The lawsuit argued that Richards intentionally made things hard for Sams after that point, retaliating by twice denying him promotions that he deserved in favor of less qualified officers. In September 2018, Sams, then a corporal, applied for a promotion to an open sergeant position, and the department selected a less-experienced white male with less seniority and qualifications, the lawsuit said. Major Katie Conley later stated in an OIG interview that Richards, who chaired the interview board, intentionally interfered with and obstructed Sams from being chosen.In July 2019, Sams applied for another open sergeant position, which was filled by a person with no experience with horses or the Mounted Unit, the complaint contended. Sams also complained of a hostile work environment, evidenced by racially offensive and derogatory comments and conduct by his white colleagues. They included allegedly unfounded allegations that he abused horses with a bullwhip, and a text he received from a white female trooper containing a meme featuring Harambe the gorilla (made famous in 2016 when he was killed after a Black child entered his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo). Sams left the Mounted Patrol Unit in 2020 and transferred to the Capitol security detail unit, where he was promoted to Senior Corporal in March 2021. In their pleadings, the defendants denied that DPS fostered a racially hostile working environment and argued that “general criticism” and “joking text messages” did not meet the standard for actionable harassment. They noted that Sams had used the term “cracker” and had not properly documented issues with his subordinates. Those “leadership and communications concerns” were what held him back from promotions he sought, they said.McPherson, a 22-year veteran of Texas DPS, was the only Black officer in his unit when he was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Unit in Temple, Texas, in May 2018.Soon afterward, he says he received discriminatory treatment by his superiors, including being denied permission to grow facial hair, which was the custom of special agents who worked undercover in environments frequented by criminal elements. White co-workers were permitted to grow facial hair while on undercover assignments, the lawsuit said. McPherson claimed he received harsher evaluations and disciplinary treatment than his white co-workers from supervisors, causing him to file a racial discrimination complaint with the EEOC in October 2019 and to seek a transfer to Austin CID. His new supervisor, Capt. Mark Koenig, who is white, allegedly told other officers that McPherson’s discrimination complaint was “b.s.” and frequently denigrated him to white co-workers. Then Koenig denied McPherson’s efforts to be placed on the elite 7C2 countersurveillance unit, a career-enhancing assignment. Koenig told him he needed to first spend time in the 7C1 unit to gain experience investigating crime in Austin.The 7C1 unit, which was then “comprised of only individuals of color and an immigrant,” was given more difficult and onerous tasks, permitted fewer days off, and was treated less favorably than the all-white 72C unit, the complaint alleged.After McPherson spent a few months in 7C1, the CID Command assigned a white employee to 7C2 who had no investigative or countersurveillance experience and who was substantially less qualified and less experienced than McPherson, the complaint said. McPherson further alleged that in 2020, a white male supervisor circulated photos depicting a white lieutenant wearing a “Hitler moustache” and black socks, with an inscription of “Black Socks Matter,” mocking the Black Lives Matter movement. This occurred at the time when officers in his unit were directly involved in public protests over the murder of George Floyd. McPherson was not transferred to the 7C2 unit until shortly after he submitted a written complaint of race discrimination on June 10, 2020, the lawsuit said. In its motion to dismiss the case in 2023, the defendants claimed that McPherson did not face racial discrimination from supervisors and had initially hurt his chances for promotion by lying to a supervisor. In October 2018, Capt. Stephen Schwartz met with McPherson to confront him about picking up his daughter in a state vehicle, which he said had been captured on surveillance video. When asked if he did so, McPherson allegedly said, “Nope,” and claimed he had used his personal vehicle to pick her up. He was formally disciplined for using a state vehicle for personal business and for being “less than forthcoming when questioned.”At trial, McPherson denied ever making false statements to Schwartz. His counsel argued that Schwartz and the defendants had never produced the tape alleged to have caught him in a lie. Another of McPherson’s chief complaints was that he was denied use of the state-issued vehicle that he had been given permission to use since 2012. He said Austin CID Command knew that he lived just two miles outside of the 50-mile radius DPS policy travel limit, and had allowed him to drive the vehicle for several months without issue to and from his home in Killeen. In early 2020 he was denied use of the vehicle, while white co-workers were still allowed to operate their state vehicles outside of the maximum travel distance. McPherson said he was given an ultimatum to either transfer back to Temple (under the captain he had filed the discrimination complaint against) or to drive his personal vehicle. He opted for the latter, which resulted in loss of pay for two hours of overtime pay for daily travel time (adding up to $1,500 a month), increased fuel expenses and wear and tear on his personal vehicle, and humiliation at being denied benefits that white employees enjoyed. The defense countered that the supervisor who had denied McPherson’s continued use of the state vehicle was Regional Director Dwight Mathis, who is Black, and was not discriminating by making McPherson comply with a department policy. Sams and McPherson asked the jury to award past and future lost wages as well as other economic damages to account for their emotional pain and suffering, inconvenience, and mental anguish from racial harassment and discrimination. They also sought punitive damages. After a three-week trial, on Jan. 29, the jury found that both plaintiffs had proved that they were harassed because of their race and that DPS had failed to take prompt remedial action. They awarded McPherson $62,500 in economic loss for the denial of his service vehicle and $725,000 for past and future suffering and anguish. The jury did not find that Sams was denied a promotion due to his race, and gave him nothing for economic loss, but did award him $875,000 for past and future emotional pain, suffering and anguish. The total amount awarded by the jury was $1,662,500. Sams, who retired after more than 26 years of service, citing the cost of the discrimination on his mental health, told Fox7 in Austin he had mixed emotions about the verdict. The win is “gratifying,” he said, but the agency’s handling of the situation “took the joy of being a trooper” away from him. McPherson, who is still employed by DPS as a special agent and now has the rank of sergeant, said he shed tears when the jury rendered its verdict because it “validated everything I’ve been through, not just these last five years with this lawsuit but my entire career.” The Texas Department of Public Safety filed a motion for a mistrial on Feb. 9, claiming that counsel for plaintiffs made improper statements during closing arguments that prejudiced the jury, including references to “systemic racism” that Judge Ezra had expressly told them not to bring up before the trial. The judge had also admonished plaintiffs’ attorneys to avoid “any argument to the jury that, you know, ‘I want you to send a message,’ that kind of stuff; we won’t stand for that kind of thing in Austin and … you’re asking for a reversal on appeal.” DPS noted that in his closing argument plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Lucas made the “exact type of emotional argument about ‘sending a message’” that the Court warned about:“A very famous American, Martin Luther King, one said: If injustice is tolerated anywhere, justice is threatened everywhere. And what he meant was, even though this involves just two people in Austin involving employment within a Department, your decision is going to resonate across the entire country. I said earlier today you were the law, and you are. And your decision will have impact on other cases across the country.” Texas DPS counsel also took issue with how plaintiffs’ attorneys intervened after the jury delivered its verdict. Pointing out that the jury had left blank a place on the form for future emotional damages, the plaintiffs’ attorneys posited that the jury, which had earlier sent a question to the judge about damages, seemed to have misunderstood the difference between front pay and future losses for emotional pain. After some back and forth between Judge Ezra and the jury foreperson, the jury was allowed to deliberate the verdict again, and ended up nearly tripling the amount of damages initially awarded. “A mistrial is warranted here,” the defense argued. The judge has not yet ruled on the motion to declare a mistrial. Accused of By White Supervisor of Trying to Turn Police Unit into the ‘Buffalo Soldiers,’ Texas Troopers Sued and Won $1.6M  ...read more read less