Attorneys Reach Final Settlement In Tulsa Police Discrimination Lawsuit

By Emory Bryan, The News on 6  

TULSA, OKLAHOMA -- The City of Tulsa has reached a final resolution to a lawsuit over racial discrimination in the Tulsa Police Department. The lawsuit was filed in 1994.

Even though a final settlement was announced earlier, the settlement itself created other issues for the Fraternal Order of Police and the Black Officers Coalition. Thursday's agreement resolved the last one of those issues.

5/20/2010 Related Story: Discrimination Lawsuit Results To Shake Up Tulsa Police Special Units

Attorney Joel Wohlgemuth, representing the City of Tulsa, said a final document detailing the agreement was being circulated among the attorneys Thursday and once it was agreed upon, it would go to Judge Terrence Kern for the court's approval.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett plans to announce the agreement to the City Council Thursday night.

Bartlett said lawyers for the City, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Black Officer's Coalition met Thursday morning with Judge Liz Egan and reached a settlement that Bartlett said was boiled down to a single sentence on which everyone could agree.

"It was amazing to see" said Bartlett, who attended the meeting.

Wohlgemuth said he did not anticipate any problems with the attorneys agreeing to the document, which was based on the verbal agreement made earlier Thursday.

Wohlgemuth said he could not detail what issue the settlement resolved because it had not yet been approved by the federal court judge.