It’s a classic “rock and a hard place” scenario. A  female cop who wants to build her career finds she’s blocked at every pass. Now she’s got to decide whether to take a chance on being ostracized from the job for filing a lawsuit and bringing negative attention to the agency, or trying to make it easier for the next cop who finds herself in the same boat. Luckily for the Texas female officers of the future, Beaumont Texas Police Officer Tina Lewallen made the tough choice.

After she found out that she had prevailed in her lawsuit against the Beaumont P.D., Lewallen called the other female officers who had come to her defense. “We won! Yes. I’m thrilled. Thank you so much,” Lewallen said as she fielded calls from supporters during an interview with Dee Dixon of the Beaumont Enterprise newspaper.

After deliberating for less than three hours, a federal jury of five women and three men awarded Lewallen $150,000 in her lawsuit claiming that her department discriminates against female officers. She feels vindicated but doesn’t like the fact that she had to bring some bad publicity to the job.

“I hate that there’s been so much negative stuff. I hate to shed a negative light on the Police Department,” Lewallen told Dixon. “Ninety-five percent of those officers are stand-up, awesome people. This case was against the leadership that wasn’t fair.” Neither Police Chief Frank Coffin nor Beaumont attorney Dean Johnson, who represented the city, offered comment about the jury’s decision. Johnson wouldn’t say whether the city would appeal.

During closing arguments, Johnson argued that Officer Lewallen in a previous deposition said that former Police Chief Tom Scofield didn’t discriminate against her. Lewallen said in her lawsuit that she was denied a position in the department’s criminal investigations division as well as a position on the Jefferson County Narcotics Task Force because of discrimination against women.

Other female officers who testified about discrimination they faced included Carman Apple, Cindy Ball, Lisa Jardine and Capt. Melissa Ownby, the department’s highest-ranking female officer. In 2003, Lewallen was among four officers who applied for two positions in the special crimes unit. Those positions were filled instead by two men.

“I think this was about a bad decision,” Lewallen’s attorney, Margaret Harris, told Dixon. Harris had tears in her eyes. “They were so desperate to keep women out that they kept Officer Keith Breiner. This lawsuit was filed because the department put in a man of that caliber instead of a woman. Justice has happened.”

Breiner is one of two officers who were suspended indefinitely earlier this year after engaging in sexual activity with two women during an undercover prostitution sting.

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