GALVESTON – A Southeast Texas county and one of its commissioners face allegations of racial discrimination from a former employee.
Galveston federal court records show that Kevin Davis has active litigation against Matagorda County, County Commissioner James Gibson, and ex-senior foreman William David Anders. Davis, who was formerly employed with the Precinct 3 road and bridge maintenance crew, filed a lawsuit last month.
In his 24-page original petition, the plaintiff, an African American, claims that Gibson, Anders, and some of his co-workers used the word “n****r” in his presence and in referring to him on a routine, customary basis.
The suit recalls an instance in which Davis accidentally stuck a county vehicle in mud and Gibson directed Davis’s co-worker “to go get that ‘n****r’ out of the mud.” It adds that Anders and another co-worker called the complainant the same racial epithet within earshot of a parent at an annual Christmas charity event last December.
“The level of hostility and racism had reached the point where the plaintiff did not want to report to work,” court documents say.
Davis says that Anders threatened his life, to which Gibson purportedly failed to address because “Anders had the right to free speech.” Davis’s efforts to get the county to remedy the problems he was facing were to no avail, the complaint says.
The suit further details how Davis blew the whistle on a money-making scheme Gibson allegedly devised. Dubbed as the “Kitty Box,” the plan reportedly involved the sale of scrap iron with the generated revenue managed by Gibson.
Davis reported the “Kitty Box” to the county’s human resources department, as well as the Texas Rangers. Gibson learned of Davis’s actions and terminated the plaintiff for insubordination earlier this year, the suit says.
The Southeast Texas Record previously reported that Davis brought a whistleblower lawsuit against the county and Gibson.
Consequently, the plaintiff seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Mark Frasher of the law firm Reaud, Morgan & Quinn, L.L.P. in Beaumont is representing Davis.
Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 3:18-CV-0188