The Dunwoody City Council at its Aug. 26 meeting accepted a conciliation agreement regarding a former police officer who accused his supervisor of repeated sexual harassment.
Without discussion, the council voted 6-1 to accept a conciliatory agreement after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a letter to the city that the case brought by Bryan Castellanos, who accused the Dunwoody Police of retaliation, had merit. Councilman John Heneghan was the lone dissenting vote.
Without mentioning Castellanos or the letter of determination, the council voted to accept the agreement. The case number on the council agenda, 410-2021-0565, however, matched the case number on the EEOC’s determination letter, dated May 31.
The letter, from the EEOC’s Atlanta District Director Darrell Graham, obtained by Rough Draft through a third party, said the agency determined that the Dunwoody Police Department retaliated against Castellanos “by including evidence that he provided to support his allegations of harassment into an investigative report, which was released to the public.”
The letter further stated that because the agency had determined that “unlawful practices” had occurred, it invited the two parties to engage in informal methods of conciliation.
If either party, Castellanos or the city, refused to engage in discussions, the commission would “so inform the parties in writing and advise them of the court enforcement alternative available to the charging party [Castellanos].”
“The record supports a finding that the action of releasing the evidence to the public without balancing the need for redaction and/or the prudence of privacy would dissuade a reasonable person from engaging in protected activity,” the letter continued.
Castellanos, who was named Dunwoody’s police officer of the year in 2018, accused former Lt. Fidel Espinoza of sending dozens of sexually laden texts and demands for sexual favors in exchange for lucrative off-hours jobs. In 2020, after an internal investigation, then-Dunwoody Police Chief Billy Grogan released a 146-page report detailing his findings.
The report included 17 pages of screenshots of text conversations between Espinoza and Castellanos wherein Espinoza repeatedly asked for pictures of Castellanos’ “turtle” and contained several explicit photos of Espinoza’s exposed crotch. Espinoza also texted Castellanos a picture of Castellanos urinating in a bathroom stall, which was taken without the officer’s knowledge.
The text conversations were largely unredacted, with the exception of the graphic images that Espinoza sent to Castellanos.
The EEOC determination letter said the agency did not find sufficient evidence to support Castellanos’ charges of discrimination because of his sex, but supported his allegations that the publication of the report constituted retaliation.
This is the latest in a flurry of court cases against the former lieutenant, who resigned in 2020 after the allegations surfaced. In May, a DeKalb County civil jury awarded $60,000 in compensatory damages and $120,000 in punitive damages to Castellanos after two days of testimony that included several officers who also claimed that Espinoza harassed them.
Espinoza has consistently denied the charges, saying that any communication between him and the officers was consensual.
Sources close to the investigation say that the conciliation agreement would certainly include monetary compensation to the charging party.
According to the EEOC website, if a violation is determined, the charging party “could receive money damages as part of that process.”
City officials would not comment on the details of the agreement. Castellanos, who is working in law enforcement in a neighboring city, has also declined to speak on the matter, and Ben Bengtson, his attorney in the civil case, did not reply to a reporter’s request for comment.