Torres

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Torres and Robert Hill were officers assigned to the Department’s Newton Division. They frequently heard their immediate supervisor, Sergeant Gil Curtis, use derogatory terms and make disparaging comments in reference to African-Americans and Hispanics. On one occasion Curtis referred to Torres in his presence as “a lazy Mexican.” In March 2005, Hill initiated a misconduct complaint against Curtis with the Department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD) accusing Curtis of making racist remarks toward other officers. In January 2006, Hill filed a complaint concerning Curtis’s racist remarks with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (FEAH). Torres corroborated Hill’s allegations in an interview with IAD investigators in February 2006. Prior to Torres’s involvement in Hill’s complaint against Curtis, Torres himself had been the subject of an FBI and IAD investigation to determine whether he had any illicit involvement with a murder suspect named George Torres. Torres admitted he knew George Torres and believed that he had contacts in city government through which he was able to obtain confidential information. During that investigation Torres was…