A former West Palm cop was fired for calling a Black cop a racial slur; now he's suing to get his job back

West Palm Beach Police Chief Frank Adderley fired a white officer last year who addressed a Black colleague with a racial slur.

But the fired officer, Charles Brideau, has filed suit against the city, which he said violated his union rights by not allowing him to participate in an arbitration process. The suit raises questions about Adderley's authority as chief and what role police union contracts play in determining how he imposes discipline.

Last year, Adderley fired an officer who had been disciplined, reprimanded or counseled 15 times in 11 years. That officer was reinstated after the union that represents police officers went to bat for him.

Records obtained by The Palm Beach Post indicate that Brideau, 43, was fired in November after showing up to a sector meeting with other officers and greeting a Black officer "with a lowered fist, as in a fist bump, and said, 'What's up my (racial slur)?"

The Black officer "left the meeting," said a disciplinary summary in Brideau's employment file.

A lieutenant investigated the incident and found that Brideau violated department rules against discrimination and harassment. A captain sustained that finding, and, on Nov. 17, Adderley ordered Brideau's termination. After meeting at Brideau's request Dec. 15, a hearing board upheld his firing.

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The use of racial slurs in the workplace is widely frowned upon across a variety of employment fields and often leads to discipline or termination.

Brideau's disciplinary record says the former officer used the N-word with "igga" at the end. That slur, a colloquialism of the slur ending in "igger," is broadly offensive to many Black Americans, particularly when it's used by someone who is not Black.

Neither its broad use by some Black artists in rap and hip-hop, nor the fact that some Black Americans use the term in conversation with one another, has lessened what many other Black Americans see as the ugliness of the slur.

This year, the slur figured prominently in the federal case against the white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery, a Black Georgia man. After a state trial where the men were found guilty of murder, they were later convicted in federal court of hate crimes, with their broad use of the slur in text messages and social media as a key part of the evidence presented by prosecutors.

Former police officer claims city denied him access to an arbitration process

Before his firing, Brideau had received four written reprimands and a 16-hour suspension for a variety of department violations. The infractions included damaging a police vehicle, using inappropriate language with a suspect, failing to follow case filing requirements in a case where he was the arresting officer, and violating department rules on reporting violations of another officer.

Brideau's suit, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court on March 8, does not refer to his use of a racial slur. Instead, he argues that the city improperly denied him access to an arbitration process, which he said was spelled out in contract language between the city and the union that represented Brideau at the time, the Fraternal Order of Police's Florida State Lodge.

"Brideau's statutory right to arbitration is impeded by the City's refusal to participate in the arbitration," his filing states. "As a result of the City's wrongful refusal to permit Brideau to pursue his grievance to arbitration, Brideau has and continues to suffer irreparable damage, including loss of employment, loss of pay and insurance benefits."

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One of the documents included in Brideau's legal filing gave some indication as to why the case didn't go to arbitration.

In a Jan. 25 letter to Ralph E. King III, Brideau's lawyer, West Palm Beach senior assistant city attorney Zoe Panarites said the FOP refused to request arbitration on Brideau's behalf.

"In declining to process a grievance (up to and including arbitration) on former Officer Brideau's behalf, the FOP referred the City to the FOP's Labor Defense Plan, which specifically excludes 'Racism and Prejudicial Behavior' from its defensible claims on behalf of FOP members," Panarites wrote.

With the FOP "not requesting arbitration on (Brideau's) behalf, the City respectfully declines to individually arbitrate the grievance," Panarites wrote.

Efforts to reach King and the FOP for comment were unsuccessful.

West Palm police chief: 'We can't allow that in our work environment'

Adderley, who is Black, said the case is clear-cut.

"First of all, his actions caused disruption in our police agency," he said of Brideau. "We just can't allow that in our work environment."

That some Black Americans in some contexts use the term with one another doesn't matter, Adderley said.

"If the person you're referring to is offended by it, when you thought it was jovial, you're wrong," he said. "Clearly, this officer was offended. In these situations, we have to have zero tolerance."

Wayne Washington covers West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations. E-mail tips to wwashington@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fired West Palm Beach police officer, fired for using slur, sues city