THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995                TAG: 9505240531
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Short :   50 lines

JUDGE THROWS OUT BIAS SUIT FILED BY FIRED TRASH WORKER THE MAN CLAIMED HE WAS PUNISHED FOR BACKING A COLLEAGUE.

A federal judge has dismissed a discrimination lawsuit by a former truck driver who claimed he was fired from the Southeastern Public Service Authority for protesting racist treatment of a black co-worker.

The case was scheduled for trial June 6. But Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. sided Friday with lawyers for SPSA, the regional trash agency in South Hampton Roads, who argued that the complaint lacked merit to be heard.

Clarke said SPSA was justified in firing Carl R. Brooks Jr. of Virginia Beach because he tape-recorded a meeting with a supervisor - or at least boasted of having done so - after being ordered not to.

Brooks, who is white, had charged that he was unfairly terminated in November 1993 after filing an equal-opportunity complaint against his bosses and for agreeing to testify for black co-worker Charles T. Wilder, a dispatcher.

Among other claims of retaliation, Brooks said he was given an unsafe job - shoveling incinerator ash - when he told supervisors of a back injury that would limit his time behind the wheel.

Wilder had claimed he was harassed because of his race and because he suffers a chronic intestinal disease. His case also was dismissed by Clarke, who ruled that Wilder was not a satisfactory employee, having missed 94 work days during three years of employment.

Wilder is filing an appeal, with a hearing scheduled July 10 before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Brooks responded Monday that he, too, probably would appeal.

The Brooks case was the third discrimination complaint against SPSA to come before a judge.

Stephen Scott George has been the only one to win a verdict. He was awarded $30,000 by a jury last year after being fired for protesting racial remarks to black co-workers.

William M. Furr, a defense attorney hired by SPSA, said he believes Wilder and Brooks were encouraged to sue the agency because of George's courtroom success.

``There was kind of a domino effect,'' Furr said. ``But Scott George's case is completely different, with completely different supervisors and completely different facts.''

KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT DISMISS by CNB