The State of Connecticut has settled a federal lawsuit brought by Connecticut Department of Transportation employee Tyquon Williams against four DOT supervisors who allegedly used racial slurs or denied him the opportunity for advancement, allegations highlighted in a 2022 Inside Investigator story about Williams’ co-worker Luis Ortiz.
 
Ortiz claimed he faced retaliation for speaking out against the racism he and others experienced working at the DOT garage in Milford, which included being called racial slurs, a segregated workplace, harassment, lowered work evaluations, and being passed over for promotions.
 
Many of Ortiz’s allegations, backed by several other employees, including Williams, were substantiated by an internal DOT investigation. The supervisors named in the investigation received short suspensions but remained on the job or were promoted. Ortiz’s own lawsuit against the state was quickly dismissed due to procedural errors, but Williams’ lawsuit was transferred to federal court.
 
In his amended complaint, Williams claims he was denied training and promotion opportunities by management while being called “a lazy n****r,” and being told the DOT garage would be run “like a prison” to make him and other minority workers “feel at home.”
 
The complaint goes on to say that supervisors held meetings with only Caucasian employees “to discuss and coordinate complaints against the Plaintiff and other African-American employees,” and Williams was repeatedly denied training to advance his career, while white coworkers were allowed to train and be interviewed for promotions.
 
“Defendants selectively treated the Plaintiff differently based on his race and color (African American, Black) and with malicious and bad faith intent to injure the Plaintiff, and also failed to provide the Plaintiff with an opportunity to train for the Grade 3 Maintainer position,” the complaint states. 
 
The defendants – Pasquelino Bruno, Joe Kelly, Stephen Moran, and Donald Remson – were represented by the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General. Bruno and Kelly were Williams’ direct supervisors, while Moran and Remson had “control over personnel matters including promotional procedures,” according to the court complaint.
 
While the defendants denied Williams’ allegations, the AG’s office admitted that the use of derogatory racial slurs by Williams’ direct supervisors was factual in their motion to dismiss but argued that since Bruno and Kelly were no longer in supervisory roles over Williams, the case he was not “currently being subjected to an ongoing violation of federal law.” The AG’s Office also argued the claims were just recycled from Ortiz’s prior lawsuit.
 
Although the judge allowed the dismissal of some of the claims against the defendants in their personal or official capacities, the lawsuit, in general, was allowed to continue leading up to the settlement.
 
Luis Ortiz, who is now happily working for the Connecticut Department of Correction, says he is happy for Williams reaching some kind of conclusion, even if his own lawsuit was dismissed.
 
“Ty was one of the guys who was dragged through the mud and treated like garbage just because he was Black,” Ortiz said. “No matter what happened to me, no matter what happened to the other people, no matter what happened to him, all the people that did these things and got away with it, every single one of them got a better job. They got a two- or three-day suspension with no pay and then they would give you a promotion to go somewhere else and get paid more money. So, I don’t see how the punishment they were handing out was supposed to fix anything.”
 
A review of state open data records shows all defendants named in the lawsuit continue to work for CT DOT and each earned over $100,000 in 2024, including overtime. Williams also continues to work for DOT at the Milford garage.

According to Ortiz, “everyone who was harassed was harassed into quitting,” while supervisors were transferred to other locations.
 
In a previous interview with Inside Investigator, Williams said that after he and others filed complaints with the Office of Equal Opportunity many of the supervisors were transferred. “Everybody we complained about ended up getting a higher position,” Williams said in 2022. 
 
According to the court complaint, Williams sought monetary damages, attorneys’ fees, and allowing him to train for the Grade 3 position while enjoining the defendants “from their unconstitutional actions and conduct,” but the amount and nature of the settlement is unknown at this time, and neither Williams nor his attorney responded to request for comment.
 
“I’m just happy that he got some semblance of justice out of it,” Ortiz said. 
 

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