A 23-year veteran of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office alleges supervisors conspired to “falsify” his test results to exclude him from an internal job he sought in 2020, at age 55, so they could hire a younger candidate.
Former Deputy John Loftus, who left the office in April 2021, filed a lawsuit last week against the office in U.S. District Court alleging age discrimination after he was denied the position of civil deputy.
His attorneys provided to the Kitsap Sun a letter of recommendation from a sheriff’s office lieutenant saying in 2016, after decades as a cop, Loftus still had “the energy of a rookie.”
"They did not treat John Loftus with the respect that he earned," said Loftus' attorney, Jeffery M. Campiche.
The lawsuit alleging that the office wronged a veteran deputy comes as Sheriff John Gese is trying new strategies to attract experienced officers, offering upwards of $25,000 signing bonuses to officers to transfer from other agencies along with emphasizing deputies need not be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Loftus’ lawsuit alleges that though he initially scored highest of three candidates seeking the civil deputy position – 25 points out of 30 – officials conducting the hiring process "conspired" to recalculate Loftus’ test scores to drop his score to 18 points, below the younger candidate.
The lawsuit says the supervisors then destroyed most of their interview records in violation of federal and state law. The deputy who was ultimately hired scored 22,...
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