WASHINGTON (LN) — Tyreem Fosque began working as a Special Police Officer for the D.C. Housing Authority's police department in late 2021. His sexual orientation, he says, was common knowledge throughout the department. Things took a turn in early 2024 when Officer Don Williams reported that Fosque had sexually assaulted him at work.
Fosque categorically denied the accusation, pointing to what he called telling evidence of its falsity: Williams texted him Merry Christmas on December 25, 2023, Happy New Year on January 1, 2024, and wished him a happy birthday on January 9, 2024 — all after the alleged incident. The Metropolitan Police Department investigated and closed the case, finding insufficient evidence to meet the elements of a sexual abuse offense.
The D.C. Housing Authority pressed on anyway. A Proposed Notice of Termination followed, relying heavily on statements from Officer Kenneth Matthew, who claimed Fosque had admitted to the assault — admissions Fosque says he never made. Fosque appealed by email to Police Chief Michael Reese, asserting that the allegations against him were false and motivated by discrimination. The agency terminated him in late July 2024, claiming they never received his appeal. Williams kept his job.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, applying Bostock v. Clayton County's holding that Title VII covers sexual orientation, found all three of Fosque's theories — disparate treatment, hostile work environment, and retaliation — plausible enough to survive dismissal. On disparate treatment, McFadden pointed to Fosque's allegation that heterosexual male officers Darnell Douglass and Harold Yeager faced multiple well-supported complaints of sexual harassment and assault but were not terminated, while Fosque lost his job over an accusation the department's own investigation could not substantiate.
The hostile work environment claims survived on similar logic, though McFadden flagged that Fosque faces a steeper climb ahead. At summary judgment, he will need to bolster his theory that the alleged conduct was sufficiently extreme to amount to a change in the terms and conditions of employment, the judge wrote, calling that a tall order.
On retaliation, McFadden found the causal chain between Fosque's discrimination complaint to Chief Reese and his subsequent termination sufficient at the pleading stage, noting the agency finalized the firing while claiming it never received the appeal at all.
The D.C. Housing Authority's police department was dismissed as a separate defendant — the court ruled it is subsumed within the authority itself and not a proper party.
McFadden acknowledged the agency might very well rebut Fosque's claims at summary judgment, writing that is for discovery to uncover.
Fosque had filed a timely complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before suit and received a right-to-sue letter. Williams, the officer who made the original accusation, remains employed at the department, according to the complaint.