He was once the face of Horry County police. Now he’s suing the agency for discrimination
Horry County police’s former public face says he was discriminated against and faced hostile workplaces after raising concerns about others’ conduct, a lawsuit says.
Raul Denis, who once served as the department’s public information officer, filed a lawsuit against Horry County police recently. Denis is of Hispanic heritage and retired at age 55 as a lieutenant from Horry County police in September, he described in the filing as a forced retirement because of the treatment.
Denis joined Horry County police as a patrol officer in 1996 and worked up to lieutenant in 2007, when he was assigned to the South precinct as deputy commander, the lawsuit states. While in that role, he learned of several officers’ policy violations and reported the incidents. He was told he was “punishing” the officer by making them do their jobs.
In 2009, Denis was assigned to watch commander and in 2012 he was appointed to be the training officer for the entire department, the lawsuit states.
As training officer, Denis learned of two incidents where improper force was used and reported the situation, the filing said. Department officials told him to forget both cases “as if it did not occur,” the lawsuit says. In 2014, then-Chief Saundra Rhodes appointed Denis to accreditation manager and he helped rewrite several departmental policies.
Denis then served as public information officer until current-Chief Joe Hill joined the department replaced him with a younger, Black woman, the lawsuit said. That woman was later fired for failing a drug test after a car accident, the suit states.
Then in 2017, Denis acted as court liaison and used a program to track which officers failed to appear for court. But, Hill and another captain told him to stop using the program because it “made the department look bad,” according to the suit.
Denis’ lawsuit alleges that he faced discriminatory behavior because of his Hispanic heritage on several occasions. He also said he participated in the firing of other employees for their unethical or illegal behavior.
Horry County spokeswoman Kelly Moore said its county policy not to comment on pending lawsuits.
Throughout his employment, Denis says he was considered a good employee but was not treated fairly. He says he was passed over for promotions and not treated the same way as white people in the department, the lawsuit said.
In the filing, Denis states that Hill—who is Black—was hired to add diversity to the command staff, but the chief’s attempts “were discriminatory on their face.”
The command staff for the department is young, white men except for Hill and Denis claims that the chief failed to increase diversity.
In 2019, the captain of the West Precinct was forced to resign, the suit claims. Denis was up for promotion, but two younger white men were offered the position. Denis questioned Hill about the issue and said the failure to promote him could be discrimination and retaliation. Denis also said there was no one more qualified as he wrote many of the procedures.
Denis also told Hill he suspected there were concerns about promoting him because he was involved in previous discrimination incidents in the department, the filing contends. Hill later told Denis that a deputy chief had reservations that Denis would not treat employees fairly.
Again in March 2019, there was an opening for captain, and Denis was not chosen. He told the deputy chief that he was upset he was considered not to be good enough to be promoted, the suit states. Denis then complained to command staff, and claims he had to fight to get anything done.
He tried to continue being a police officer but was harassed because of his complaints and forced to retire, according to the lawsuit.
He said his race and age both played a part in the discrimination. The filing asks for an unspecified amount of money.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
