The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - A supervisor fired two years after she began cleaning up problems in the medical department of the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center won a racial-discrimination lawsuit against the center and an administrators.

Ruby Davis' bosses said she was fired in June 2001 because she was too abrasive. But Ms. Davis, 54, said it was because she was black and was not afraid to report nurses whose mistakes put children at risk.

After a six-day trial, a jury Wednesday found Ms. Davis was the victim of racial discrimination and retaliation and awarded her $52,000 in back and future pay.

The jury specifically found that Ms. Davis was the victim of discrimination from Ken Lusnia, administrator of the Juvenile Court, which oversees the detention center. He was ordered to pay her $2,500 in punitive damages.

The jury also found that Ms. Davis should be repaid for her legal bills, which could exceed $100,000, said her lawyers, Merrie Frost and Timothy Ita. It was unclear who will have to pay those bills.

"I feel vindicated," said Ms. Davis, a registered nurse who now works for a nursing agency.

Instead of future pay, her lawyers plan to ask Common Pleas Judge Mary Jane Boyle to reinstate Ms. Davis to her old job.

After the center hired her in 1999 as its medical-services supervisor, she discovered chronic problems among the nurses she supervised. Medications got mixed up, records were thrown out or were incomplete and one nurse didn't have her license.

Twelve nurses quit or were fired under Ms. Davis' tenure.

Ms. Davis' lawyers said she was treated differently than white supervisors.

Lawyers for the center said she was fired because of employee complaints and because she failed to raise medical standards. Ms. Davis' lawyers said most of the complaints came from nurses she disciplined.