Another white former Transit cop claims he was fired because of racism; also sues former DA and former Boston city councilor

Former Transit Police officer Jacob Green yesterday sued TPD Chief Kenneth Green, TPD Superintendent Richard Sullivan, the MBTA, former Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins and former Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, alleging he was forced into early retirement in 2022 because Green hates white people and veterans and because Rollins and Arroyo conspired to make a big deal out of what he claims was a road-rage run-in with an angry Black guy on his way to work one day.

In his suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Green is seeking back pay, the money he would have kept making had he not been fired, lost pension contributions and enough damages to make the defendants think twice before doing what he alleges they did ever again.

Green, who quit after 23 years as a patrolman, and no relation to the TPD chief, alleges that "Chief Green fired and retaliated against many White Caucasian officers based on race and veteran status."

Superintendent Sullivan and Chief Green discriminated against Plaintiff on the basis of his race by coordinating with Defendant Rollins, Defendant Arroyo, and the Boston Globe reporters to promote the narrative of racially based police misconduct in order to benefit Defendant Arroyo's and Defendant Rollins' political candidacy.

Superintendent Sullivan and Chief Green retaliated against Plaintiff on the basis of his race and veteran status and targeted his first amendment protected political speech and retaliated against him by falsely and baselessly accusing him of bribery and criminal acts and for threatening to terminate his employment on the bases of said speech. All of these allegations were mere fabrications to couch the rampant discriminatory practice in the MBTA TPD.

Green is at least the third white Transit Police officer to sue over alleged racism in Transit Police, and like the other officers, brings up an interview Chief Green, who is Black, had with a Black-oriented radio station in 2016, in which he said he wanted to increase minority representation in his ranks.

In the earlier cases, a federal judge concluded that while Chief Green might have used better phrasing than to say he wanted to "darken" his force, neither of the two were fired because of racial animus. In one case, she concluded, a lieutenant got caught sleeping on the job - in a locked room he had equipped with a sleeping bag at TPD headquarters - while in the other, another lieutenant was fired for overtime violations.

However, Jacob Green also brings up what happened after he got into a beef on Blue Hills Parkway in Milton with a Black driver - which he claims eventually played into the scandal involving the way US Attorney Rachael Rollins tried to tip the election for her replacement as Suffolk County DA towards her pal, then City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, by feeding stuff to Globe reporters.

The Respondents coordinated together to make the Complainant the sacrificial lamb to pursue their agenda(s) on the basis of race and veteran status.

Green provides his side of a traffic beef with a Black guy that started on Blue Hills Parkway in Milton and ended near the MBTA station in Mattapan, to which Green was driving to start his daily shift, on the afternoon of April 11, 2021.

According to the complaint, Green was driving to work at the Mattapan T stop from his home in Raynham around 3 p.m. on April 11, 2021 when he "observed a red car driving erratically behind him, weaving in and out of traffic and tailgating him and other motorists" on Blue Hills Parkway in Milton. He said that when both he and the red car's driver had to stop at a red light, he got out his phone to take a picture of the guy's license plate.

At that point, he said, the guy got out of his car and approached Green's car in "an agitated and aggressive manner."

In response to [Jason Leonor's] aggressive and scary conduct, Plaintiff unholstered his TPD-issued service firearm and laid it down in his lap in case Leonor attempted to attack him while in his vehicle. As Leonor approached Plaintiff's window, Plaintiff pointed at [him] and warned him to "get the fuck back into his car." Leonor eventually returned to his vehicle.

The guy then got in front of Green and kept driving like a moron, until Green spotted an on-duty TPD cop near Mattapan station and used his radio to have the guy stopped. He says he then took off the off-duty sweatshirt he had over his uniform, walked over to the guy's car and issued him a ticket for "unsafe lane change" - as the guy was on the phone with 911 complaining how Green had pulled a gun on him - and that he was "TikTok famous" with a specialty of talking about police brutality and Black Lives Matter. Green says he later wrote a report on the incident, including explaining why he got his gun out for safety.

At no point, the complaint alleges, did Green point his gun at Leonor. Transit Police, however, charged that Green did point his gun at Leonor - and that he conspired with another TPD cop to write a false report about the incident.

Green says Sullivan put him on administrative leave two days later - not, Green alleges, because of what happened but because as Chief Green's lackey, he was using the incident as a pretext for getting rid of yet another white officer. Green charges he was put back on duty - but without his gun or badge, then put back on leave. The Globe then started reporting on the case. Then, in April, 2022, he alleges, Hayden, as acting DA, said he would not prosecute Green - but that internal-affairs detectives told him he had to quit to further Green's campaign of getting rid of whites.

Green's wife, a defense attorney, made a contribution to Hayden from their joint checking account and what Green says is a "sexist" state Office of Campaign and Political Finance listed him in public records as the contributor rather than her - and that Sullivan allegedly threatened to charge him with bribery, the complaint states. Then Chief Green and Sullivan then threatened to refuse to certify Green as OK to a new state agency charged with overseeing police activities, which meant he could never work again as a police officer in Massachusetts.

The Globe started writing stories about the case, fed, Green alleges, by Rollins to help Arroyo's campaign by making Hayden look bad.

Finally, on Sept. 2, 2022, Green "was forced to resign in lieu of termination due to the Defendants' unlawful discrimination," the complaint states.

The complaint does not detail the alleged hatred towards veterans in the department, but notes that while he is a Marine Corps veteran, Chief Green, Sullivan and Arroyo did not serve in the military. The complaint does not mention whether or not Rollins is a veteran.

The complaint formally charges racial discrimination and creating a hostile work environment, retaliation, interference with the right to be free of racial discrimination and interference with the right to be free from threats, intimidation and coercion. He specifically charges Rollins and Arroyo with aiding and abetting, because they "aided, abetted, incited, compelled and/or coerced MBTA and/or TPD into retaliating against Plaintiff."

The people and agencies named in the suit have until July 31 to file responses.

In a ruling last month the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, which certifies police officers for work in the state, reinstated Green's eligibility to serve as a police officer, concluding that while Green should have identified himself as a cop during the initial confrontation with Leonor, Transit Police failed to show he did anything criminally wrong and that he "possesses the requisite good moral character and fitness for employment in law enforcement at this time."

Complete complaint (4.9M PDF).