Defendant Thomas Poz

In the case of Lue v. JPMorgan Chase & Co. et al (U.S. Supreme Court: Case # 19-260)

Taken from “SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS - DEFENDANT THOMAS POZ” of my Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants JPMorgan Chase & Co., et al’s Motion for Summary Judgment

Poz, whose position at JPMorgan Chase was initially only Executive Director when I joined the Counterparty Risk Group and who became the Executive Director/Interim Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management when Khavin was said to be on “medical/extended leave” then eventually named “Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management” on January 6, 2016 (within 30 minutes prior to my termination), aided, abetted and enforced the acts of employment racial discrimination and unlawful harassment that were being perpetrated against me by Khavin and Shillingford in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

At his position of Executive Director, Poz was aware that for the two years prior to me joining the group, Khavin had made the taking of the minutes rotational among all the non-Black analysts and associates as she, Khavin was cognizant of not making any of the said non-Black analysts and/or associates feel demeaned by making them feel as if the taking of the minutes for the monthly meeting was the task of any one of them.

Poz was aware that at the beginning of each monthly team meeting, customarily and respectfully, Khavin would ask the non-Black analysts and associates, “Who wants to take the minutes this time?” (EXHIBIT B – Email response from Kim Dauber). And, as the first and only Black analyst to have joined the team, Poz became aware that the treatment for me was different. It was, “It’s your job”. Poz was in the meetings where he witnessed that in front of everyone, instead of Khavin doing what she customarily and respectfully used to do prior to me, the Black analyst, joining the team, Khavin would just look at me as if to ask, “Why are you not taking the minutes?” before addressing me saying, “Are you taking notes?” (the minutes). Or, if I was sitting paying attention like everyone else was, Poz should have heard and seen Khavin just look at me and condescendingly instruct, “that’s a follow up” – meaning that as the only Black analyst on the team, I have been solely assigned to take the monthly meeting minutes and thus should be putting what was said (the “follow up”) in the meeting minutes.

Poz was aware that for the two years prior to me joining the group, everyone on the team did their own printing, collating, stapling, sending out of attachments and lugging of 13 copies (one for each team member) of their presentation materials to the monthly team meetings. Poz was also aware that no single analyst or associate was assigned to open each of the said meeting presentation attachments and put them together in one email to make work “easier” for the other members of the team while making it three times harder for them.

Poz was aware of the email I sent to the team on May 27, 2015 which states: “In the interest of team spirit, can you please print, sort, organize and staple as well as send out your own presentation materials to the team? I find it unfair and demeaning that the task of printing, sorting, organizing, stapling, sending out and lugging YOUR presentation materials to the meetings is placed on me.” As, Poz was a member of the group email to which I sent this said email.

Poz was aware that the education, experience and skills requirements for me to have landed the job as the Credit Reporting Risk Analyst, as per the job description, were identical to those of the non-Black Analysts thus, I should not have been treated as a second class citizen to them whereby, I was solely assigned the employment racially discriminatory tasks of printing, collating, stapling and lugging to the group’s monthly meeting, the presentation materials of each of the non-Black team members, including the said non-Black Analysts, and the putting of meeting presentation attachments together in one email to make work “easier” for the said non-Black team members which made that work three times harder for me.

As the Interim Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management due to Khavin’s leave from the office, Poz was made aware that I had raised the issue of the employment racial discrimination perpetrated against me by Khavin and Shillingford to HR. Up to the point of Poz being named Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management, I copied Poz on various emails in which I expressed the blatant employment racial discrimination against me of subjecting me to be treated as the house slave reminiscent of the 1800s plantation style living, in the era of slavery when Blacks had to serve their masters and their masters’ families that had originated from Khavin, the racist, then subtly passed over to Shillingford, the horizontal racist, as solely her, Shillingford’s, job to enforce, as cover, for Khavin who from June 22, 2015 through January 6, 2016 was said to be on “medical/extended leave”.

Poz was also copied on an email that I sent to Shillingford where I expressed Shillingford’s behavior and attitude in enforcing Khavin’s bigotry against me and the retaliation I endured by the said Shillingford for raising the issue of racial discrimination against me that was perpetrated by Khavin and her, Shillingford. A part of the said email to Shillingford read: “You are a very unfair person and yes, knowing the numerous data quality issues that we experience for which I have self-identified, investigated, prepared analysis for and escalated to the Tech team, if there is a very minimal or ONE oversight, you do not need to unfairly give the impression for me to be seen as being incompetent. Please bear in mind that unlike you, the company understands that there is a propensity that incidents of oversight will happen whether with you, me or anybody and that is why per the company’s protocol, a second reviewer is required” (EXHIBIT Y – 1). In this case, Shillingford was the second reviewer.

However, as the Interim Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management, instead of Poz disavowing the employment racial discrimination, retaliation and harassment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 that were being perpetrated against me, Poz aided, abetted and enforced them. As the Interim Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management, Poz was in a position where he had the authority to take corrective actions to stop and/or to prevent any further employment racial discrimination against me, the only Black analyst in the group, but he failed to do so.

Working in tandem with Shillingford, Poz was not only present at the meeting on September 24, 2015 when Shillingford served me with a written warning (EXHIBIT F ) with the “expectation”, “It is my expectation that Candice perform the job responsibilities for which she was hired; she is expected to print all materials for our monthly team meeting and provide copies for each member” (meaning that I am expected to be the team’s house slave) but Poz was also vehemently enforcing the said “expectation” that Shillingford put forth in her written warning including telling me that if I do not comply, I could be terminated. This action by Poz shows that he did not only fail to take steps to stop and/or to prevent any further employment racial discrimination, retaliation and harassment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 against me but he also aided, abetted and enforced them.

As anyone of reasonable mind can imagine, these actions by Poz caused me mental, emotional and physical distress. Because, as a senior level manager and an appointed “culture ambassador” working at JPMorgan Chase, a company that purports itself on its website and in its Code of Conduct policy to be committed to diversity and inclusion, I expected better of him.

Instead, when I continued to take a peaceful stance against the employment racial discrimination of being treated as a house slave reminiscent of the 1800s plantation style living, in the era of slavery when Blacks had to serve their masters and their masters’ families, including filing a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), on January 6, 2016, within half an hour of Poz being newly appointed to take over Khavin’s position as Head of the Counterparty Risk Group for Global Investment Management, he called me into a meeting with him and Shillingford and told me that my employment had been terminated with immediate effect.

The first reason Poz gave me for my termination was for repeatedly refusing to do the employment racially discriminatory tasks of printing, collating, stapling and lugging to the group’s monthly meeting, the presentation materials of each of the non-Black team members and the putting of meeting presentation attachments together in one email to make work “easier” for the said non-Black team members which made work three times harder for me, the only Black analyst in the group.

The unlawful acts of aiding, abetting and enforcing employment racial discrimination that Poz perpetrated against me were despicable, willful, malicious, callous, rancorous and oppressive. These acts of employment racial discrimination also violated my civil rights and my constitutional rights pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

Defendants Declarations aka LIES under Penalty of Perjury | THE TRUTH | THE EVIDENCE | SHOP CandiceLue®

Lue v. JPMorgan Chase & Co. et al (1:16-CV-03207)

Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey and so many others “paid it forward” for me. Hopefully, I will be able to “pay it forward” for others.