Judge denies Sheriff’s motions for new trial in racial discrimination lawsuit that awarded $15 million to Deputy

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Judge Gloria Walker has denied motions from Sheriff Chad Scott requesting a new trial or a reduction in the damages awarded by a jury to Deputy Kevin Davis for racial discrimination.

On February 7, an Alachua County Jury awarded over $15 million to Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Davis, who had filed a lawsuit alleging that he was denied promotions due to racial discrimination and was retaliated against after he filed discrimination complaints. The jury awarded $115,724 in damages to compensate for loss of wages and benefits plus $15 million for emotional pain and mental anguish.

Read more about the trial here. 

On May 1, attorneys for Sheriff Scott filed a motion asking Judge Walker to let them amend previous motions (filed in February) to set aside the jury’s verdict and enter her own judgment, order a new trial, or reduce the damages awarded by the jury. The case is also being appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeals, but that court is awaiting orders on the post-trial motions.

Scott’s attorneys argued that witnesses should not have been allowed to provide testimony about an alleged criminal investigation into former Sheriff Clovis Watson and his administration, stating that the only purpose of that testimony was “to suggest to the jury that the Watson administration had engaged in some unspecified criminal conduct” and that the evidence was irrelevant to the claims of racial discrimination “and devastatingly prejudicial to the Sheriff.”

On March 27, Scott’s attorneys learned that 3rd Judicial Circuit State Attorney John Durrett had notified the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that he would not prosecute Watson on two criminal charges because of “insufficient evidence.”

Read more about Durrett’s letter here.

Scott’s attorneys wrote that they had made a motion before the trial to exclude any evidence related to the FDLE investigation, but they did not know at that time or when they filed the February post-trial motions that the investigation had concluded. The attorneys argued that information now available from the investigation supports their pre-trial motions and “amount[s] to new grounds that were not available prior.”

Although the hearing on the motions is scheduled for July 15, Judge Gloria Walker issued an order on June 24, denying all of Scott’s motions.

In her order, Judge Walker wrote that the racial discrimination case “was not about the criminal investigation against the Former Sheriff Clovis Watson” and “[t]his Court is not convinced that the new information regarding the criminal investigation against the Former Sheriff, Clovis Watson, would have made a difference during the trial, particularly since the trial was based on allegations regarding race discrimination.”