A Black officer with the San Diego Police Department received a $3.1 million payout this week after settling long-running litigation against the city. He alleged he was subjected to racial discrimination and retaliation for reporting on racist conduct by his superiors. Sgt. Arthur Scott, who work ed for the department for 29 years, filed three lawsuits over the past 11 years. The first complaint in 2015 detailed how he was punished after objecting to racist images and cartoons displayed in locker rooms and during officer trainings. In that lawsuit, Scott said the city retaliated against him after he complained about two racist caricatures: an image in the police department’s locker room that depicted then-President Obama as an African tribal chief with the word “Obamacare” under it, and a San Diego Sun newspaper cartoon from 1909 showing SPDP’s first Black officer, Frank McCarter, as an ape chasing after a Chinese man, referred to as a “Chink.” San Diego Police Department Sgt. Arthur Scott received a $3.1 million settlement from the city of San Diego to resolve three lawsuits claiming racial discrimination and retaliation. (Photo: Blue Heart Foundation Facebook Page) When Scott, who was then vice president of the San Diego Police Black Officers Association, complained about the cartoon, which was used during a mandatory training for prospective lieutenants in August 2014, his supervisor told him he was being “hypersensitive,” the lawsuit said. This 1909 cartoon from a San Diego newspaper depicting the city’s first Black police officer was used in officer training by the San Diego Police Department and was part of Sgt. Arthur Scott’s first racial discrimination lawsuit against the city. (Photo: Arthur Scott vs San Diego Complaint, 2015). Scott said he was called into the office of Assistant Chief Todd Jarvis to discuss the cartoon. According to the lawsuit, Jarvis told Scott the cartoon would not longer be part of the training session but at the same time tried to defend its use.Some officers said the cartoon was displayed to show the political atmosphere in San Diego when McCarter was an officer, including when he was assigned to patrol a Chinese neighborhood in downtown.In 2014 SDPD Sgt. Bryan Pendleton, who was in the same training class as Scott, told NBCSanDiego that even though the cartoon was used in the context of explaining the history of the police department, those who led the training gave no consideration to how offensive it may have been to some officers. “No doubt about it. The depiction of a black man as an ape-like character, that’s racist,” said Pendleton, who was also a member of the Black police officers association, which supported Scott’s legal effort. “This lawsuit is not simply about a cartoon. There are other issues that will come out throughout this process,” Pendleton said at the time. “When you take all of those together and compound them, then you’ll see clearly that there is an issue.” More Retaliation After Scott took his complaint to the assistant chief, the lawsuit says he was denied promotion, threatened with frivolous disciplinary action involving his conduct in the field, and then transferred to a job in the traffic division where promotions would be more difficult to obtain, the Los Angeles Times reported.A jury ruled in favor of the city and against Scott in that case in February 2017, but the department disclosed during the trial that it had stopped using the 1909 cartoon in training, which Scott called “a win.” In the years following, Scott testified twice against the department in sexual harassment and excessive force lawsuits, the Times of San Diego reported. In a 2019 case, Scott advocated for a female Black officer who had complained that a white officer had touched her backside during work and later testified on her behalf at trial. A cardboard cutout of rap star Rick Ross included as evidence in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the city of San Diego by Sgt. Arthur Scott. (Photo: CBS8SanDiego) A few months later, Scott again approached superiors with complaints about a cardboard cutout of rap star Rick Ross that two sergeants placed in the lineup room. The cutout included a caption that said, “Every day I am hustling and you can too … sign up for some OT.” In response to his testimony in the lawsuits, the department and the City Attorney’s Office then launched an internal investigation, alleging that Scott had lied under oath. The Second Lawsuit In January 2023, Scott filed his second lawsuit against the city alleging racial discrimination and retaliation for reporting racially insensitive misconduct by officers. He says he was passed over for a promotion, demoted, and later falsely accused of accepting money from outside attorneys who represented other police officers in exchange for testifying in their cases. While the city attorney’s office launched a criminal investigation into his alleged perjury in 2022, Scott was transferred to a new position in the traffic division to investigate hit-and-run accidents, CBS8SanDiego reported. The lawsuit said, “He was given a desk and told to review collision reports, file information on the computer, and fold letters that would later be sent to persons involved in hit-and-run collisions.” At that time, Scott was barred from using his police cruiser and instructed to use his personal car. The complaint said Scott was treated differently from other officers who were under investigation. It points to a white sergeant assigned to the traffic division who was under investigation for months and “was not involuntarily transferred and was allowed to continue his regular supervisory duties, including working overtime in uniform.” In April 2023, the district attorney closed its criminal investigation into the perjury allegations against him. Two months later, the city hired an outside firm to conduct an administrative investigation into Scott. That investigation closed in January 2024. On March 6, 2024, Scott and his attorneys submitted discovery requests for material related to the criminal inquiry against him to Capt. Adam Sharki, who never responded to them, the lawsuit said. Termination and Settlement On March 19, 2024, Scott was served with a notice of termination by Sharki. Scott and his attorneys spent several months fighting the department for records related to the investigations the city said justified the termination. Their requests were denied. On May 5, 2025, Scott filed a petition in San Diego Superior Court against the city and the police department to stop his unlawful termination, arguing that the department had failed to provide material evidence upon which his termination was based, as required by state law. He further claimed that the SDPD had fired him after a one-year statute of limitations regarding termination over the conduct in question had passed. In their answer, the city and the police department argued that they had acted lawfully and in good faith in terminating Scott, and that all of his claims were barred under the doctrine of governmental immunity. After another year of legal wrangling, on May 18, the City Council of San Diego voted in a closed session to settle both pending lawsuits with Scott for $3.1 million — including all claims for damages, costs and attorney fees.The City Council was scheduled to approve a resolution authorizing its chief financial officer to pay the settlement to Scott at its regular meeting on July 14.Attorneys for both the City of San Diego and Scott did not immediately respond to Atlanta Black Star’s requests for comment. Veteran Black San Diego Police Officer Says He Was Demoted and Accused of Perjury After Reporting Racist Conduct by Supervisors—Now the City Is Paying Him $3.1 Million ...read more read less