A white Pittsburgh police sergeant is suing the city and his former chief, Larry Scirotto, alleging he was discriminated against by being removed from a motorcycle unit.
The lawsuit, filed by Brian Elledge in federal court on Wednesday, includes claims for race discrimination and retaliation. He is seeking money damages.
A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh police said she could not comment on pending litigation.
Scirotto, who retired from the city department in 2024, told TribLive on Thursday that Elledge’s claims are false.
According to the lawsuit, Elledge previously served as a supervisor on the night shift for the Special Deployment Division, the department’s motorcycle unit. He was hired as a police officer in July 1993.
However, the lawsuit asserts Elledge was transferred out of the unit at Scirotto’s direction on July 11, 2023, after a Black officer filed a complaint alleging he was receiving less desirable work assignments.
Elledge asserts that the city’s Human Resources Department did a sham investigation into the allegations and was so biased against Elledge that even Scirotto and former Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt withdrew a disciplinary action report against him.
Still, the complaint said, Scirotto transferred Elledge out of the motorcycle unit, replacing him with another sergeant.
Pending appeal
According to Elledge’s lawsuit, the police union filed a grievance on his behalf against the city in July 2023 alleging his transfer was disciplinary and a violation of the union contract.
An arbitrator ruled in July 2024 that Elledge’s transfer was made in an “’arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable manner.’”
The arbitrator ordered Elledge to be returned to his previous position and made whole.
However, the city appealed the decision, the lawsuit said, and Scirotto eliminated all of the sergeant positions in the motorcycle unit “in an apparent effort to nullify the arbitrator award.”
On Thursday, Scirotto said Elledge was removed after the city concluded Elledge had treated the Black officer in a “disparate manner and made disparaging statements substantiated by other officers.”
“He had created a hostile work environment for a Black officer in his unit,” Scirotto said. “It was in everyone’s best interest to remove him from that assignment since the information was credible.”
Scirotto said he disbanded the motorcycle unit and reassigned those officers to work out of the zones to address staffing problems in the bureau.
“The unit was not functioning in a healthy manner,” Scirotto said.
According to Elledge’s complaint, the city appealed the arbitration award in Common Pleas Court but lost in March 2025. An appeal is currently pending in Commonwealth Court.
During oral argument in the case last week, the lawsuit said, the city argued Elledge’s transfer out of the motorcycle unit was made to protect the Black officer who originally complained.
Elledge disagreed.
“Contrary to the city’s false and fanciful argument, it is Elledge who is clearly a victim of the defendants’ ongoing reverse racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation,” according to his lawsuit.
Scirotto’s lawsuit
Elledge’s lawsuit references Scirotto’s previous job as chief in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and his “known history of reverse race discrimination.”
Scirotto, who was hired to become Pittsburgh’s chief in May 2023, had been fired from his previous job in Fort Lauderdale.
Scirotto alleged in a federal lawsuit he filed against Fort Lauderdale that he was fired for complying with the city’s demands to increase diversity in the police department.
In that complaint, filed in Florida, Scirotto said he was investigated for allegations that he discriminated against white employees.
He noted, though, that during his tenure he promoted nine white men, two Black men, a white woman, a Black woman and a Hispanic man and woman.
Scirotto’s lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in October 2023.
Scirotto stepped down as chief in Pittsburgh after 18 months in October 2024 amid controversy that he wanted to continue refereeing NCAA basketball games.