Chicago cop wins discrimination suit

Association Press

A federal jury has awarded a Chicago police officer more than $500,000 in a discrimination lawsuit against a former supervising officer.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports Officer Detlef Sommerfield sued the city and his former boss, Sgt. Lawrence Knasiak, in 2008 for taunting him with anti-Semitic and racist remarks. He was awarded $540,000 in the suit Monday.

A court complaint says Knasiak used a Nazi salute to greet Sommerfield, who is Jewish and from Germany. It says the supervisor showed a swastika to Sommerfield several times. He supervised Sommerfield from 2000 to 2007.

The Sun-Times couldn't reach Knasiak Monday. He now lives in Arkansas.

A spokesman for the city's legal department says the city was dismissed from the suit in 2009 and wouldn't have to pay the sum awarded Monday.