A cop assigned to protect Mayor Giuliani’s family was awarded $50,000 by a Manhattan jury yesterday for facing retaliation when he complained about not getting a promotion.
But the federal jury rejected Detective Robert Chu’s claim that he was discriminated against because he is Chinese-American.
“Robert feels vindicated, because it was never about the money,” said Paul Cisternino, Chu’s lawyer. “We’re pleased with the verdict, [though] it is kind of a stalemate.”
Chu sued for $4 million, claiming that a fellow cop on the high-profile security detail taunted him with fake Chinese accents, and that another made demeaning ethnic jokes.
Chu, 39, also said he was passed over for a promotion because of his race, and that when he complained, he was shipped out of the unit where he worked protecting the mayor’s wife and children.
The jury found that Chu’s superiors punished him for complaining about the nonpromotion by transferring him to a detective squad in Brooklyn.
A spokeswoman for the city’s law department could not immediately be reached for comment.