Nice Retirement Send Off - $5.2 Million Award

Just not a good year for Anaheim. First their baseball team drops their name, excuse me it is technically the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and now a 30 year police veteran has won the largest award ever by an individual against the city. Ray Welch, 51 and a 30 year veteran of the police force retired after he was injured on the job and according to the jury verdict discriminated against after he complained to the state Department of Fair Housing and Employment that he had been passed over for promotion. After a 2 ½ week jury trial, the result, Ex-Anaheim Officer Awarded $5 Million.

The reports of the trial are not very complete, the only indication of what might have caused the jury's reaction was Welch's lawyer's comment that there was testimony that other's overheard the Chief of Police had said Welch would never get any other assignments [perhaps implying that the Chief had said otherwise] and that Welch basically had been relegated to answering the phone.

One thing that was common to a number of the MDV's that have been reported on here, the reaction from the defendant. By an assistant city attorney: "We're very surprised and somewhat shocked by it." Somewhat?