A Maryland sheriff’s last day was Saturday after an investigation found he frequently made racist, anti-Semitic and sexist comments at work and created a “hostile work environment.”
James Fitzgerald resigned last week from his position as sheriff of Howard County, Maryland, a county of more than300,000 people. Officials had been seeking a way to remove Fitzgerald from office following the results of the investigation, which included, among other statements, comments such as telling a Black man at a buffet there was “no watermelon” and calling a Jewish man “little Jew-boy.”
The investigation came about after former Lt. Charles Gable filed a formal complaint against Fitzgerald. Gable eventually quit his job because he could no longer work in the derogatory environment Fitzgerald subjected him to. According to the report by the Office of Human Rights, “[Gable] alleges that Sheriff Fitzgerald fuels the hostile environment, in demonstration of a Creed opposite to his, by making derogatory comments, using racial epithets and slurs towards employees, colleagues, citizens and other government officials who are female, Black, gay, Asian or Jewish.”
