Former Wyoming deputy: Supervisor racism overshadowed career

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Jamin Johnson was born into a family of law enforcement officers. His father served 27 years as a University of Wyoming police officer, and two of his cousins and his twin brother serve on the Laramie Police Department.

It made sense that, after graduating from UW in 2006, Johnson would accept a position at the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.

“It was something I felt honored to do to serve the community,” Johnson told the Laramie Boomerang of his decision to start his own career in law enforcement.

This was just one aspect of Johnson’s desire to help those around him. While working at the Albany County Detention Center, he pursued a master’s degree in community health education from Western Governors University and interned at a local ministry, where he worked with children and went on mission trips to Louisiana, Mississippi and Rwanda.

Johnson’s time at the Sheriff’s Office soon became overshadowed with a pattern of prolonged discrimination he alleges he endured there. It culminated in his resignation from the department after 10 years of service, which he claims his supervisor, Sgt. Christian Handley, forced upon him.

Now Johnson is suing Handley, alleging his former colleague at the Sheriff’s Office made him the target of a years-long pattern of racial discrimination and abuse. He is being represented by Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, a prominent law firm known for its success in discrimination and excessive force cases in Wyoming and Colorado.

Handley, who was fired after a delayed investigation into Johnson’s claims, is represented by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, which declined to comment on the litigation.

The Albany County and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said it could not disclose information regarding the existence of a settlement...