Former UVU police cadet alleges racial discrimination

Peter Sturdivant grew up with dreams of one day becoming a police officer. He doesn't have those dreams anymore.
Sturdivant, a black 34-year-old, spent more than a year studying and training at Utah Valley University's police academy starting in June 2006. He passed all the exams -- not with top performance in physical tests but good enough to get by, and competent in academics. His overall score on the National Police Officer Selection test was 91 percent, according to one document.
Toward the end of his time in the school's police academy, Sturdivant received job offers from Utah County police departments. But those offers were revoked, and his dreams shattered, by what he says was racial prejudice at the academy.
"You can sense the racial tension in there," he said. "I felt like I was treated wrongly because of the color of my skin."
Census numbers indicate that a tiny one-half of 1 percent of Utah County residents are black. Sturdivant said that this wasn't an issue when he moved here 10 years ago from New York City. Much to his surprise, he said, race came up on the first day at the academy.
The single father with three children at home says he has been blocked from landing a law enforcement job since graduating in August 2007. UVU and local police departments say Sturdivant was disqualified from the jobs not because of his race but because of concerns about his background or behavior -- though they don't say exactly what all of those concerns were.
Sturdivant's claims have sparked inquiries by the Salt Lake City chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Butting heads
Sturdivant lays most of his troubles squarely on the shoulders of Capt. Steve DeMille, the director of UVU's police academy. Sturdivant said that his first meeting with DeMille was congenial, but the captain immediately raised race by telling him that Utah County police departments were looking to hire minorities ahead of whites.
"Initially, he was like, 'Oh yeah, you'll get a job easily. You'll be the No. 1 applicant,' " Sturdivant said.
The relationship turned sour shortly after that, Sturdivant said. He claimed DeMille came down hard on him -- telling him he had a "bad attitude" and that he "played the race card." That contributed to an environment of racial prejudice, he said.
Sturdivant said that he objected to racial stereotyping, as when he was asked to assume the part of the criminal in role-playing exercises during class.
"Every movie or clip they showed was some minority -- usually black -- getting arrested," he said. "They did a thing on the O.J. [Simpson] trial. Guess who they asked to play O.J.?"
When reached by cell phone, DeMille declined to be interviewed for this article. "I don't want to talk," DeMille said. A woman answering the phone at his office later reiterated his stance.
When asked about Sturdivant's claims, UVU spokesman Chris Taylor said federal privacy laws prevented him from discussing a student's academic record. He said role playing is not a formal part of the curriculum and that neither Sturdivant nor his attorney, April Hollingsworth, had raised that issue in a meeting with UVU administrators in January.
"This is an ongoing matter, and as such it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the details of the claims," Taylor said. "Suffice it to say that this was not a racial issue. Capt. DeMille has been in this business for 27 years and has seen a lot of students from various racial backgrounds come and go through his program."
DeMille's boss, Jeff Maxfield, assistant dean over emergency services at UVU, declined to be interviewed for this article.
The UVU police academy is a satellite of the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training academy in Sandy, a subdivision of the state Department of Public Safety. DeMille had been deputy director there, then came to UVU after the 2002 Winter Olympics. A UVU Web site says DeMille received an associate's degree in police science in 1977 from El Paso Community College, followed by a bachelor's in sociology from University of Southern Colorado, then a master's degree in public administration in 1984 from Brigham Young University. He completed an FBI course in 1988.
DeMille would not confirm any facts regarding his professional experience when contacted again on Saturday.
Negativity in class
Sturdivant said that cadets in DeMille's program at UVU made racist jokes -- about the visibility of black skin in the dark, for example -- and refused to work with him on class assignments requiring a partner. The closest they offered to sympathy was indifference, he said.
So in 2007 he transferred into a different section for the second and final block of the academy.
As part of academy routine, each cadet provides written reviews of other members of the class. The university provided those reviews and other documents to Sturdivant's lawyer as part of the investigation.
In Sturdivant's first class, in 2006, feedback about him was universally negative, with comments like "he has shown me he cannot be trusted or counted on" and "plays the minority card all the time, thinks he doesn't have to try because he is black."
Sturdivant's second group of classmates had nicer things to say, but 11 of the 13 reports contained some negatives. Comments included impressions -- "I never really saw him give his all [during physical training] and he seemed to be late a lot" -- and advice such as "be willing to listen even if you know more about something. You still might learn." Others said "he is generally a good guy" and "he can pull his own weight when needed."
Job rescinded
Sturdivant continued training. In March 2007, five months before graduation, he applied for a job with the Provo Police Department. A letter from the city dated April 12 said Sturdivant was the department's No. 1 prospect based on his test scores. A city document referred to Sturdivant's score on the National Police Officer Selection test, 91 percent.
On April 23, 2007, a conditional employment offer bearing Police Chief Craig Geslison's name was given to Sturdivant, saying he would be offered a job if he passed a background check, psychological screening and medical exams. Sturdivant said he assumed it was a done deal because he had never been arrested or gone to jail.
But that's as far as the process went.
Four days later, an academy instructor e-mailed DeMille to say that Sturdivant had left physical training early, going to his car and driving off without a word. Sturdivant counters that faculty members knew about a knee surgery he received not long after entering the program, and that he had made it clear that he was leaving early that night.
In a reply to the instructor's e-mail dated April 30, one week after Sturdivant's conditional offer from Provo, DeMille asked to be kept apprised of any future problems.
"Keep me informed on anything and everything he does that is not acceptable," DeMille wrote. "I am through talking to him. He got a conditional from Provo. I told him it wouldn't matter when they did a background on him because his conduct in the academy would kill him."
Shortly thereafter, Sturdivant said, DeMille called him into his office and pressured him to sign a letter alleging poor performance and stating that he was on probation for behavioral concerns. He said DeMille told him it would end any chance he had to land a job with any Utah County agency.
The letter, dated May 3 and signed by both DeMille and Sturdivant, says the cadet was placed on probation for "refusal to follow academy rules and regulations with regard to the wearing of the academy uniform, excessive tardiness, and excessive absences to include missing a significant portion of Physical Fitness Training."
"He made me sign this bogus paper," Sturdivant said. "He said he'd kick me out of the academy if I didn't sign it."
Sturdivant said many of his physical training issues were the result of the 2006 knee surgery. He admits to wearing a UVU shirt one day during the institution's push for university status instead of the police academy's prescribed apparel, and to arriving "two or three" minutes late to class once. But he rejects the other claims in the letter.
Another item in the letter -- that Sturdivant "failed the Arrest Control test" -- was unfair, Sturdivant said, because it required a partner and nobody in the class was initially willing to work with him.
"I passed all the tests -- the physical, the skill, the written tests," he said. "It doesn't matter because this one person controls all of it."
Officer Summer Knotts of the Springville Police Department was a classmate of Sturdivant's. She said even if DeMille had ulterior motives, he wouldn't have been able to change attendance records to suit his claims because they were kept by other cadets. During one stretch, academy records show Sturdivant being absent seven times, late eight times and leaving early once in a two-month span.
"I didn't ever feel any sort of discrimination and I don't think it would have been tolerated," Knotts said. "I would absolutely not think that Capt. DeMille ever tried on his own to not graduate a person or have a person not be hired."
'Blackballed'
The conditional job offer from Provo was rescinded a few days after he signed the letter, Sturdivant said. He said Chief Geslison could have been influenced by DeMille during the vetting process because Geslison and other police chiefs teach classes under DeMille's supervision at the academy. Provo city spokeswoman Helen Anderson confirmed that Geslison does report to DeMille insofar as UVU teaching duties are concerned.
Geslison did not return several messages left on his secretary's voicemail. Provo police spokesman Capt. Cliff Argyle said the department was referring questions to the city and had nothing to add of its own.
"The decision to not hire Mr. Sturdivant was based on the second phase of the screening process, after the conditional offer was made. There were reasons other than Mr. DeMille's concerns to not hire Mr. Sturdivant," Anderson said in an e-mail statement. "It is not unusual for an applicant to be given a conditional offer and then not be hired based on the second phase of the screening process. It happens with about two out of every five conditional offers."
She did not specify what those other reasons were. The Provo Police Department has never hired a black officer, according to Anderson.
After losing the offer in Provo, Sturdivant applied at the Pleasant Grove Police Department in July 2007. He said he got another conditional offer in early August, but it, too, was rescinded a few weeks later. The official rejection was vague: "You have been disqualified based on concerns the department has found within your background."
Disheartened, Sturdivant then applied for a job as a security officer with the Utah Transit Authority in September, shortly after graduation. He said he felt the interviews went well, but he never heard back. He applied for a job handling firearms for the Orem Police Department later that month. Same story, he said. He said he began to feel he had been "blackballed" by the local law enforcement community.
Seeking redress
In late September 2007, Sturdivant began pondering litigation. He called the state Office of Ethnic Affairs, which referred him to the NAACP's Salt Lake City chapter. The organization looked into the case and saw enough merit to pursue it, President Jeanetta Williams said.
Williams began by sending a letter to Geslison and Provo Mayor Lewis Billings in June 2008 asking about the department's reasoning for rejecting Sturdivant.
A response from Geslison dated Aug. 19 does not specify a reason for the change of heart, but says: "During that process members of my staff did speak with Captain DeMille. Captain DeMille did express some concerns to them regarding Mr. Sturdivant's abilities. However, nothing he said indicated that his concerns were based on Mr. Sturdivant's race."
The NAACP assigned Hollingsworth, its legal redress chair and a Salt Lake City discrimination lawyer, to review the actions of DeMille and the Provo Police Department. She said she wants to avoid litigation, but hopes UVU will at least consider refunding Sturdivant's tuition for his troubles.
Hollingsworth and Sturdivant met with UVU administrators and a representative from the state Attorney General's Office in January to discuss their concerns, but the school has not taken any official action to date.
"We've reviewed the matter," UVU spokesman Taylor said. "From our perspective, there is no official action warranted at this point."
The Attorney General's Office declined to comment for this article.
"From a legal standpoint, I don't know that we have any way to prove that DeMille's behavior is racially based, because it's not something he would ever admit," Hollingsworth said. "Obviously, law enforcement in Utah is severely lacking in minority representation."
She said the best resolution -- that Sturdivant find a job in law enforcement -- may not be feasible anymore, because his experience has given him a distaste for the job. But UVU could enact better racial sensitivity training so future cadets don't suffer the same way, she said.
"I guess what we can hope for is the university will pay a little more attention and will teach a little more sensitivity to their instructors," she said. "My sense is that DeMille thinks he has a legitimate beef, but my personal impression is that he doesn't. People don't even realize themselves that their behavior is racially based."
Complicating Sturdivant's claim of racism in the UVU program is information that another black academy graduate successfully landed a job at the Pleasant Grove police department sometime after Sturdivant was turned down. The Daily Herald could not reach that officer for comment, despite repeated efforts.
Taylor said that sort of fact would discredit an allegation of racism. He added that no other formal complaints have been levied against DeMille during his time at the academy.
"The example ... hopefully puts some of this to rest," he said. "We have had other African-American students go through the program who have gotten glowing recommendations. In the context of these claims, that alone speaks volumes."
Similar to Provo, a number of other police departments in the Utah County employ no black officers, according to employees contacted last week in Orem, American Fork, Spanish Fork, Springville and Lindon.
By contrast, Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said his office employs five black deputies in a 261-member force -- some of whom "have been here quite a while" -- but none are graduates of UVU's academy.
Nationwide, 11.7 percent of police officers were black in 2003, the most recent numbers available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The bureau does not publish a racial breakdown by individual police departments.
Losing faith
Sturdivant said the whole experience has largely robbed him of his desire to be a police officer.
"It's like a busted dream. This is some big dream I've had my whole life, and some people just took it away," he said. "I don't even want to go into law enforcement anymore. How can you depend on someone who's supposed to be watching your back and calling for backup when they don't like you because of the color of your skin?"
Since October, Sturdivant has been taking information technology classes online through the University of Phoenix. It's a financial strain to undergo a second round of education -- which will wrap up sometime next year -- but it was the only option, he said. He said he's not sure what kind of resolution he's looking for -- but the school should be made to offer some kind of restitution.
"Something should be done," he said. "Some way, they have to pay for it."
When his kids ask what happened, Sturdivant doesn't elaborate.
"I pretty much tell them that daddy can't be a cop anymore," he said. "I tell them daddy likes to work with computers."
Utah Valley University police academy graduate Peter Sturdivant, who is black, blames systematic racism for his failure to get a job in Utah County law enforcement, but others who have known Sturdivant say he could be his own biggest obstacle in landing a job as a cop.
Several people who have known Sturdivant over the years contacted the Daily Herald on Monday in the wake of Sunday's report about the former cadet's complaints against the police academy at UVU, its director, Capt. Steve DeMille, and several local police departments.
Sturdivant alleged that he may have been blackballed for employment as a result of racial issues that first arose at the academy under DeMille's leadership. Those claims were being looked into by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Utah Attorney General's Office. Sturdivant graduated in 2007.
Sturdivant's marks had been passable at the academy, and he received conditional job offers from local police departments. But those offers were abruptly withdrawn -- police say for issues that arose in background checks. Sturdivant blames DeMille and a network of prejudice.
One woman who contacted the Herald on Monday, a former roommate of Sturdivant's whom Sturdivant acknowledged, said her two-month stay with him and his then-wife in their Spanish Fork home in 2002 was marked by constant fighting between the couple and visits by police responding to neighbors who called with concerns of domestic violence.
The woman spoke on condition that she would not be identified by name.
She said she once called police herself when Sturdivant became aggressive over a TV set he believed she had stolen from him.
"I had a 3- or 4-month-old baby at the time that was in the living room at the time, and he shoved me and bumped her, and I called the police," she said. "He's got an anger problem. I'm so glad he's not a police officer."
Sturdivant disputed the claim later Monday, saying he never touched the woman and that he, in fact, called police when the argument escalated. The woman was evicted that day for failure to pay rent and for the TV she had agreed to buy, he said.
"I never put my hands on her or anything like that," he said. "That is not how it happened."
Other than that, Sturdivant said, police were only called once, by a neighbor, when he and his wife were arguing over something trivial. He said an officer made a visit to the home, spoke with him and left without citing anyone.
Sturdivant has been married and divorced twice.
Lt. Steve Adams of the Spanish Fork Police Department said he could find no record of police calls. If police were called to the scene but did not issue a citation, any record of the visit would have been eliminated after 5 years, he said.
"If we didn't see any indication of physical abuse, then it would be on what we call a daily log," he said. "We don't keep those that long."
Another source who contacted the Herald, a former UVU cadet, said it's likely that Sturdivant's day-to-day conduct at the academy hindered his chances in the eyes of prospective employers. He said Sturdivant was routinely late and made inappropriate comments in class. There were also irregularities on a physical test, he said.
"I can't say that is the reason he was dismissed from the Provo Police Department, but I can say that they were informed of it," he said. He also spoke on condition his name would not be used.
Sturdivant likewise discredits that report. He said he pulled his weight in the academy like everyone else.
"I feel bad for the people spreading all those rumors and stuff," he said. "The whole thing about me being arrested for domestic violence and me cheating on the Provo test is an outright lie."
He said he remains staunchly committed to his claims and that a wave of negative responses to his plight has not dissuaded him.
Sturdivant's attorney, April Hollingsworth, said the issue has essentially been resolved with UVU. The school has agreed that if Sturdivant applies anywhere else, Capt. DeMille, UVU police academy director, cannot have any input as part of the background check process.
"They agreed to keep DeMille out of the process if potential employers call there," she said. "My point was DeMille was never his instructor anyway. I think that it's not really appropriate in the first place for him to be talking about somebody he's never instructed."
Chris Taylor, spokesman for UVU, did not return a call to verify the terms of the agreement Monday afternoon.
Provo police declined again on Monday to elaborate on the reasons for revoking Sturdivant's conditional employment offer.
"We don't have anything to add to what we had before," said city spokeswoman Helen Anderson. "It was based on the ... background check."
A courtroom history run by the Herald showed a half-dozen debt collection cases against Sturdivant between 1999 and 2004. Hollingsworth, his attorney, said debt collections, which police would have seen during a background check, should not have mattered in a review for jobs with any agency.
"I really can't imagine that our police force is free of any collection charges against them," she said. "That doesn't seem related at all to being a police officer. It doesn't seem to be a character thing."
Sturdivant was involved in several incidents after his graduation from the police academy and after the employment offers were rescinded. He pleaded guilty to two charges of disorderly conduct in late 2007 -- charges that arose from a confrontation between him and his ex-wife's boyfriend, a man who has since been imprisoned for harming Sturdivant's kids.
"We got into a big huge argument," he said. "I pushed him out of my face."
Sturdivant was ordered by the court to attend anger management classes as a result of that incident. He said that is the "first and only" time that has happened.
Provo has never hired a black police officer, Anderson told the Herald earlier. Other police departments in Utah County currently employ no black officers, according to employees contacted last week in Orem, American Fork, Spanish Fork, Springville and Lindon.
By contrast, Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said his office employs five black deputies in a 261-member force, but none are graduates of UVU's academy.
Nationwide, 11.7 percent of police officers were black in 2003, the most recent numbers available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The UVU police academy is a satellite of the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training academy in Sandy, a subdivision of the state Department of Public Safety. DeMille had been deputy director there, then came to UVU after the 2002 Winter Olympics, according to a UVU spokesman.
• Ace Stryker can be reached at astryker@heraldextra.com.
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