European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 31, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Up1 photo inf co a. Recent investigations have uncovered a found that the Fri retaliated against Rochon because of his formal complaints to superiors about the harassment. Investigators said Rochon was improperly denied a hardship Transfer to los Angeles where his father was ill with diabetes even though White agents were routinely permitted to move to the cities of their Choice. Rochon was instead transferred in june 1984 to Chicago where Dillon his chief adversary had been transferred several months earlier. That order effectively deprived Rochon of his ability to to with his father said Kairys Rochon s lawyer. Rochon s father died last april. Rochon s allegations about the Bureau s Chicago office have not yet been heard by the equal employment Opportunity commission. The inquiry has been delayed by the Justice department s criminal investigation of his treatment there. Rochon said the harassment took an ugly turn after he arrived in Chicago and. For the first Lime he Felt that his Amity was in danger. The taunts he said began As soon As he walked into the Chicago office. His desk he discovered had been turned away from others in the room and someone had placed melted chocolate on the earpiece of his Telephone. According to his lawsuit Rochon s family then began receiving Anonymous late night phone Calls at Home. The Calls he said threatened violence the language was obscene and would often locus on interracial sex. Rochon s Wile is White. There were Calls every night Between 10 and Midnight he said. Sometimes my wife would pick up the phone. She was pregnant then and about to have a baby and it was All very  in april 1985, Rochon said he received an unsigned typewritten letter in the mail threatening him with mutilation and death and threatening his wife with sexual assault. Attached was a picture of a Black Man whose body had been mutilated. The next month he received another unsigned typewritten death threat that included the warning we Are waiting for  according to court papers Rochon received in the mail a Bill for an insurance policy for death and dismemberment coverage. Rochon had not requested the insurance. Several Days later he said there was another letter about another insurance policy this one for death and burial benefits. The Fri would not make Public the details of the Case. But according to Rochon s suit a Chicago agent Gary Miller was found guilty in an Fri administrative inquiry of forging the materials. An Fri official who asked not to be named confirmed that a Chicago agent had been disciplined in the Case. A spokesman at the Bureau office said Miller refused to be interviewed. According to the lawsuit Miller was punished with a 14 Day suspension without pay and White agents in the Chicago office chipped in to pay his salary Tor the two weeks. Anywhere else Miller would be prosecuted for making death threats and forgery Rochon said. In the Fri he got a two week  january 31,1988 Bias lawsuit May have wide Impact nov Yorac Elf in photo Clara Watson s Blai Lawt ult a reached the supreme court arguments were presented Jan. 20. By Kenneth b. Noble new York times Hen Clara Watson dropped by fort Worth Bank and Trust in 1973 to pick up an application Lor a Job As a Teller she said the Chilly reception almost ended her dream of working at the Bank. But Watson who is Black persisted. She was eventually hired. It seemed a Success Story until she tried to become a supervisor. Three limes Watson applied for the higher position and each time it was Given to a White person. The fourth time in 1981. She tiled a charge with the equal employment Opportunity commission. Now her Story is before the supreme court and building toward a decision with potentially dramatic effects on the Way hiring and promotion decisions Are made for millions of workers. Arguments in the Case considered the most important civil rights Case before the court this term were presented Jan. 20. A supreme court decision in her favor will ease the Legal Burden for Blacks and women trying to prove employment discrimination. H Watson loses employers will have greater discretion in using subjective criteria such As interviews and appraisals in their hiring and promotion decisions. Either Way the Case goes it will have a real Impact on the Way employment decisions Are made and on the outcome of Many employment discrimination cases said Christine d. Ver Toeg. A Law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul Minn. The Case will turn on How broadly the court interprets its 1971 landmark decision Griggs is. Duke Power company written by former chief Justice Warren e. Burger for a unanimous court. In that Case a group of Black employees at a privately owned Power Plant in North Carolina won a suit against their employer under a Section of title Vii of the 1964 civil rights act having maintained that the employer used personnel aptitude tests to discriminate against Blacks. The Griggs decision established the principle that regardless of the employer s Good intentions any employment practice including personnel tests is illegal if it has a disparate racial Impact and if it cannot be shown to be related to Job  since then however the nation s lower Federal courts have split Over whether the Griggs disparate Impact test can be applied to Only objective performance criteria such As written tests or educational requirements. In Watson s Case the question is whether the Griggs test can also be applied to subjective performance factors characteristics such As leadership and the ability to get along with others that supervisors often use in evaluating workers. Such subjective factors Watson s lawyers argue even when they Are racially Neutral and applied without discriminatory intent often leave room for deeply ingrained conscious and unconscious biases. In Watson s Case her lawyers argue the use of subjective performance factors by the Bank s supervisors who were All White tended to perpetuate past discrimination. The statistical evidence at the heart of Watson s argument is a study of the employment practices at the Bank now known As Bank East. Tom Marshall a political science pro Lassor at the University of Texas at Arlington who teaches statistics courses studied the effects of the Bank s subjective decision making processes Over a four year period. In that period 533 Whites and 144 Blacks applied Lor jobs at the Bank. Seventy nine Whites and live Blacks were hired. Marshall concluded that the same while supervisors who hired 3.5 percent of the Black applicants while hiring 14.8 percent of the White applicants rated Blacks 10 Points lower than Whites on the average on annual salary evaluations and promoted Blacks from one salary Grade to another at a slower rate As compared to their while counterparts. Furthermore he found Over the same period Blacks were More than 1 i salary grades below similarly qualified Whites. These conclusions were not surprising Watson s lawyers argue Given that in most of the 70s and Early 80s the Bank did not have a Black director or officer or even a Black supervisor. The Bank challenged these statistics arguing that the Job openings were posted and awarded on the basis of Merit. Even so the Bank also argued such statistics were not legally relevant in evaluating subjective employment decisions. A Federal trial court and Laler a Federal appeals court agreed with the Bank ruling that the disparate Impact analysis was not applicable even though statistics May Creale an inference that opportunities for the Bank Black employees were limited. Asserting that statistical evidence of discrimination rather than proof of deliberate Bias can be used to contest an employer s hiring and promotion practices. Watson was joined in Friend of the court briefs by the a act Legal defense and educational fund inc., the mexican american Legal defense and educational fund As Well As the american psychological association and other groups. Barry l. Goldstein a lawyer at the a act fund said the disparate Impact test for subjective evaluations is important in Many Job discrimination cases. If companies Don t have to show that their subjective practices Are Job related they will have an incentive to change from objective to subjective practices regardless of the discriminatory consequences Goldstein said. This argument has provoked Strong dissent from the Bank s supporters including Charles Fried the solicitor general who represents the . Government before the supreme  a practical matter Fried said in court documents allowing plaintiffs to Challenge subjective decision making processes on a disparate Impact theory will Force employers either to replace those selection practices with objective ones or to eliminate any statistical disparate by using  soon after she filed her suit. Watson Toft the Bank. She had considerable trouble however finding another banking position in the Dallas fort Worth area and eventually took a Job As a baggage handler Lor american airlines. The stars and stripes Page 15