City moves toward settlement in sexual harassment claims brought by former Milwaukee police officer

A $16,500 settlement of sexual harassment claims brought by a former Milwaukee police officer is headed to the Common Council next week after receiving committee approval.

Former officer Katrina R. Warren accused now-retired Assistant Police Chief Raymond Banks of sexually harassing her for years.

Banks denies the allegations, saying this week that he was accused of something he did not do.

After discussion in closed session, the Common Council's Judiciary and Legislation Committee on Monday recommended the settlement be adopted.

The settlement involves two U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases filed by Warren alleging discrimination based on sex, disability and retaliation, according to a letter from the City Attorney's Office.

The measure is slated to go before the full Common Council on July 7.

"Ms. Warren is looking forward to approval by the Common Council and a signature by the mayor so she can put this matter behind her and move forward," her attorney Summer Murshid of the Hawks Quindel Law Firm said this week.

The Milwaukee Police Department directed a request for comment to the City Attorney's Office.

City Attorney Tearman Spencer on Wednesday said the settlement was not an indication of any guilt but rather was made in the best financial interests of the city.

According to a letter written by one of Warren's former attorneys, Banks made sexual comments, called her at home to proposition her and barged into her office uninvited.

She first complained about his behavior in January 2018 because she was afraid of retaliation, the letter stated.

After she told her supervisors in January 2018 that his behavior over the last two years was "creepy," one of her supervisors wrote in a memo to Internal Affairs that she did not allege that Banks had made sexual comments or advances.

Warren said Banks would follow her in the morning from the parking lot to her small office and would close the door behind him when he came inside. The memo also stated that he would come behind her desk while she was sitting there, the Journal Sentinel previously reported.

Banks was promoted to assistant chief soon after Warren reported she was being harassed.

Warren, who joined the department in 2006, was fired last year for "non-disciplinary fitness reasons," according to a notification presented to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.