A jury in D.C. federal court found Thursday that Capitol Police discriminated against a former K-9 officer in training on the basis of her sex and awarded damages of $850,000.

The verdict was reached seven years after Mauricia VanMeter, a current Capitol Police officer who was dismissed from the department’s K-9 training program in 2017, alleged that her superiors targeted her for being a woman and treated her differently from her male counterparts.

The lawsuit was filed in 2018 and wound its way through the court system. The jury returned a verdict after several days of deliberation and a 10-day jury trial at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“Officer VanMeter’s heartfelt thanks goes to the jury for their tireless effort to ensure that justice was done in this case,

See Full Page