A federal judge has tossed a discrimination lawsuit against the City and County of Denver from a former employee, finding her termination was not due to her being white, but rather because she publicly and falsely identified herself as a police officer.

Emina Gerovic, who was a custodian in the Facilities Management division from August 2014 until November 2017, worked for a time at Denver Police District Five. She claimed Denver created a hostile work environment for employees who were not Hispanic, and that she endured harsher discipline for workplace violations as a Caucasian woman than did her Hispanic colleagues.

Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore concluded that Denver had a legitimate and non-discriminatory reason for firing Gerovic: her Facebook profiled listed her occupation as “Police Officer” and her employer as “Denver Police Department.”

“Plaintiff admits she was responsible for the Facebook posts but argues, essentially, that they were just a joke and that the City made too big a deal out of them,” Moore wrote in a Jan. 4 order. “The City also noted that Plaintiff had received a verbal reprimand for wearing a Denver Police Department sweatshirt while on the job, and that other misconduct had resulted in reprimands, documented counseling, and a verbal warning.”

Gerovic, who is a naturalized citizen from Bosnia and Herzegovina, alleged that her Hispanic supervisor singled her out for disciplinary action over trivial matters, and that staff in the police building were otherwise complimentary about her work. She contested the legitimacy of her workplace violations, and claimed there was a pattern of harsher discipline for non-Hispanic employees.

In September 2017, her supervisor confronted her about content posted to Facebook of Gerovic wearing police department clothing and stating she worked for the department. Some of the photos were taken in a police department building. After the director of Facilities Management placed her on administrative leave and scheduled an evaluation, Gerovic returned to work to learn someone had put up “Be On the Lookout” posters with her picture on them.

“The posters were dated October 3, 2017 and indicated that she had been terminated and to notify personnel immediately if she was seen in the building,” she wrote in her lawsuit. “The BOLO posters caused Plaintiff great embarrassment and humiliation.”

Facilities Management Director James E. Williamson dismissed Gerovic in November 2017 with an eight-page letter that focused heavily on the Facebook content, but also included other incidents deemed problematic.

The Denver City Attorney’s Office argued that Gerovic had not proven the city had an “anti- Caucasian discriminatory agenda,” and noted that Colorado law prohibits people from pretending to be a police officer and performing acts in that capacity.

“There is no language in the statute or case law granting an exception for Facebook posts,” wrote Assistant City Attorney Shelby A. Felton. “The City has a legitimate interest in ensuring that the public can accurately identify which of its employees are police officers.”

The federal court previously dismissed Gerovic’s claim of a hostile work environment and also dismissed executive director of public safety Murphy Robinson as a defendant. Of the remaining defendants, Moore quickly found that HSS, Inc., the security contractor that distributed the BOLO posters for its guards, was working at the direction of the city and could not be held liable by itself for any violation of Gerovic’s rights.

As for the city, Moore was unconvinced by Gerovic’s evidence that Hispanic employees were disciplined less harshly than non-Hispanic workers. The instances Gerovic cited, the judge said, were in no way similar to her presentation of herself online as a police officer.

“As set forth in the City Defendants’ eight-page dismissal letter, the City found Plaintiff’s most egregious misconduct was representing herself as a police officer on Facebook, but her disciplinary history included various instances of less serious misconduct as well,” Moore wrote. “Plaintiff has not shown these reasons are unworthy of belief, and, taken together, they provide a legitimate, nondiscriminatory basis for her firing.”