The San Diego City Council last week approved a $3.1 million settlement to a police sergeant who had said he was racially discriminated and retaliated against after testifying on behalf of another officer.
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The city’s payout, which was called a “global settlement of two cases,” will go to Sgt. Arthur Scott. Scott, who is Black, had alleged retaliation and racial discrimination in two lawsuits filed against the city in recent years.
The settlement was approved in a May 18 closed session by the City Council in an 8-0 vote, with Councilmember Marni von Wilpert absent. The council gave it final approval last Tuesday, with seven council members voting in favor, Wilpert opposed, and Councilmember Raul Campillo was absent.
According to a city resolution, the settlement resolves a lawsuit Scott filed Jan. 31, 2023, alleging retaliation and racial discrimination related to his transfer to an administrative assignment in the traffic division, and his not being promoted to lieutenant. It also resolves a second lawsuit, filed May 5, 2025, that sought to overturn efforts to terminate his employment.
Scott, who has been with the department for more than 20 years, said he was being retaliated against after testifying on behalf of another officer who claimed she was sexually harassed.
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Scott was initially demoted to the Traffic Division amid an unspecified investigation and was later told he was being fired, according to court records.
He sued the city in 2023, alleging he was retaliated against for testifying in support of Nasira Johnson, who said in a 2019 lawsuit that she was inappropriately touched on her buttocks by a senior officer and also was subjected to inappropriate comments.
In 2022, a jury found that Johnson was subjected to unwanted harassment and that it was severe or pervasive. But it also found the city was not liable for the conduct.
Scott claimed in his 2023 lawsuit that department officials moved to fire him after he sued the city in 2015, and lost, and after he testified against the city in Johnson’s lawsuit. In the 2015 lawsuit, he had accused the city of retaliation and discrimination after he reported that a cartoon depicting Black people as monkeys was used in a department training session.
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