A former Prince George's County police officer who claims she was retaliated against and forced to retire filed a federal lawsuit.
Former Internal Affairs officer Lt. Sonya Zollicoffer says she was investigating allegations of assault and profiling by two white officers against a Black driver related to a traffic stop off Pennsylvania Avenue in the District Heights area in 2017. She alleges she discovered seven minutes of an in-car video showing the assault was missing.
“Missing evidence,” she said. “There was a tape missing from a traffic stop, which I was investigating.”
After she was promoted out of Internal Affairs, the case was reassigned.
When Zollicoffer tried to find out what happened to the video, she was charged with misrepresenting herself and conduct unbecoming an officer. She was eventually demoted and threatened with termination.
“This scheme sought to destroy Lt. Zollicoffer’s reputation and career all because she was trying to do the right thing,” civil rights attorney Jordan Howlette said.
The two officers involved in the case were later cleared.
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Zollicoffer said she felt forced to retire after 20 years of service but was still challenging her disciplinary action.
She also was part of a larger racial discrimination lawsuit against Prince George's County that was settled for $2.3 million. She said she didn't realize agreeing to the settlement meant she was forfeiting her appeal of the disciplinary action against her.
She is now suing the investigator who recommended she be fired and the Fraternal Order of Police.
“[The FOP] assigned an attorney to represent Ms. Zollicoffer before the administration hearing board who was also assigned to represent the two white police officers that she was investigating,” Howlette said.
In 2021, a hearing board found her guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and making a false representation. The department argued because she had been promoted out of Internal Affairs, she didn't have the right to keep working her former cases.
Zollicoffer said she wants to restore her reputation, clear her name and have any negative information removed from her personnel file.
The FOP said it is not commenting on the lawsuit. News4 was unable to reach the police officer named in the lawsuit.
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