By P.J. D’Annunzio, From The Legal Intelligencer

A federal judge has denied a request by Coatesville Area School District officials to keep racist text messages from being admitted into evidence in a former teacher’s discrimination suit.

U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s ruling allows Jahmal Phoenix—who claimed the district fired him because of his race—to introduce into the record a slur-laden text message exchange between former district superintendent Richard Como and former director of athletics and activities James Donato.

The defendants argued the text messages were not relevant to the case but Pappert strongly disagreed.

“The text messages are a collection of, among other things, vile, racist, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic exchanges,” Pappert wrote in his opinion.

A particular exchange, as it appeared in Pappert’s opinion, began with Como texting Donato about recent firings in June 2013.

Como wrote, “Right this could be classic conclusion to board mtgs by end of month plus 23 get clipped tuesday am before committee mtg and prob 6 to 9 more in July if Ritter budget numbers right.”

Donato responded, “How many n*****s out of 23? Not enough!”

Como replied, “Dont know but think only 4-5. At most until last minute rush of firing by Goo of Phoenix and Kamara.”

Donato wrote back, “Good hangings there!”

The Legal has redacted the racial epithet, but it appears in its entirety in Pappert’s opinion.

The school district’s attorney, Sharon M. O’Donnell, declined to comment. Como and Donato are not defendants in Phoenix’s lawsuit. Paul J. Rubino, Como’s lawyer, did not return a call seeking comment. Daniel R. Bush, who represents Donato, said he had not seen Pappert’s opinion and was unfamiliar with the specifics of the case.

While the texts were allowed into evidence, Pappert granted the defendants’ request to exclude a letter sent from another attorney for the district informing parents of the district’s decision to release an investigative report into the school board of directors; the majority of the investigative report; and the bulk of the Chester County investigating grand jury’s report.

Pappert deemed the letter about the independent investigative report to be irrelevant. The report itself was the result of law firm Conrad O’Brien’s investigation into potential criminal allegations investigated by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

All but one sentence of the report was excluded from evidence: “Mr. Como had the ultimate authority and final say on hiring and firing at [Coatesville Area School District].”

Pappert said the sentence was relevant to the case because it showed that Como had a hand in making personnel decisions.

The grand jury’s report looked into allegations of financial mismanagement, fraud, inappropriate hiring and nepotism, and misuse of district funds by Como, according to Pappert.

Because the text message exchange between Como and Donato was mentioned in the report, that section was deemed pertinent to Phoenix’s case, but the rest wasn’t.

“This conversation directly mentions Phoenix’s firing and, by implication, his race, and is therefore relevant and probative,” Pappert said. “The rest of the grand jury’s report, however, is not relevant, and even if it was relevant, its probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues.”

Phoenix, an African-American, alleged in his complaint that he was subject to a greater level of scrutiny from the district than his white peers.

The district put Phoenix on an eight-week “improvement plan” in October 2012 for allegedly poor performance, his complaint said.

Phoenix maintained that he complied with the improvement plan for the eight-week period, but was terminated anyway. In his complaint, he pointed to white teachers in similar standing with the district, but who were not fired.

Phoenix’s attorney, Sidney Gold, said he does not believe the case will be resolved before trial late this month, but said Pappert’s ruling was still a significant one.

“What was important is that he not only ruled that the evidence was admissable but he adopted the findings of the grand jury investigation and the Conrad O’Brien investigation which showed that Como had the authority for hiring and firing,” Gold said.

IMAGE: School Bus

For more on this story go to: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202739785853/School-Officials-Racist-Texts-Allowed-as-Evidence-#ixzz3orKdJjuk