Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard 2010 Annual Report

Civil Rights Division (continued)
The Litigation Section also
and training to prevent future
the Arizona Fair Housing Act
• State v. FGPJ Apartments,
• State v. ASARCO, LLC: This
helped parties resolve 24
civil rights violations in housing
and the Arizonans with Disabili-
et al.: This housing discrimi-
sex-based employment
charges through conciliation
and employment.
ties Act. Among the highlights
nation case involved a Tucson
discrimination case, which
agreements achieved prior to
the conclusion of the Division’s
administrative investigation or
after a reasonable cause determination
was issued but before
a lawsuit was filed. Through
these conciliation efforts, the
Division obtained more than
$227,000 in monetary relief
for the charging parties and for
future monitoring and enforcement
activities.
The conciliation agreements
also resulted in substantial
non-monetary relief for disabled
persons in the form of physical
changes to places of public
accommodations, such as the
building of access ramps and
retrofitting places of public accommodation
to ensure disabled
persons could access the
businesses and their services,
One pre-lawsuit conciliation
agreement involved a complaint
against a national grocery
retailer alleging that its payment
policy for home delivery
service did not accommodate
customers with disabilities.
The grocery retailer agreed to
make changes to the payment
procedure to allow it to take
payments from people with
disabilities who receive SNAP
benefits.
In seeking to enforce housing,
employment and public accommodations
discrimination
laws throughout Arizona, the
Litigation Section pursued 23
lawsuits in state and federal
trial and appellate courts alleging
violations of the Arizona
Civil Rights Act, which includes
of the cases litigated in the
past year:
• State v. Hildale-Colorado
City Utilities, et al.: On June
25, 2010, the Division filed
a lawsuit against the Town of
Colorado City, Ariz.; the City
of Hildale, Utah; Hildale-Colorado
City Utilities; Twin City
Water Authority, and Twin City
Power for alleged violations of
the Arizona Fair Housing Act.
The complaint alleges that
the defendants discriminated
against Colorado City resident
Ronald Cooke by not providing
him with water and other
utility services because of his
religion and by not accommodating
his disability. Mr.
Cooke is a former member of
the Fundamentalist Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
landlord who allegedly discriminated
against a disabled
tenant by failing to provide
an accessible parking space
and make necessary repairs
to his apartment so that he
could operate his medical
equipment. The landlord also
allegedly retaliated against
the tenant and his family by
threatening to evict them after
they filed a complaint with
the Division. The lawsuit was
resolved through a settlement
agreement that required the
landlord to pay $100,000 to
the tenants and $50,000 to
the Division for future civil
rights enforcement and monitoring
activities. The settlement
is one of the largest the
Division has entered into in a
housing discrimination case.
includes claims for disparate
treatment, hostile work environment,
sexual harassment,
retaliation and constructive
discharge, involves allegations
that ASARCO has a
history of ignoring complaints
of workplace harassment and
failing to address employees’
use of pornographic graffiti
to humiliate, demean and
ostracize co-workers, including
the aggrieved party in this
lawsuit. Defendants have
vigorously defended the action
and the case is likely to
go to trial in early 2011.
• State v. City of Cottonwood
& Cottonwood Police Department:
This employment
discrimination case involves
allegations that the Cottonwood
Police Department
and requiring policy revisions
Saints (“FLDS”).
made passing a physical
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard • 2010 Annual Report
46