New Jersey Employee Sues, Claiming Racist Taunts

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A black employee has sued Gloucester Township employees and officials, saying he was locked in a cage and taunted by two white co-workers while on the job.

Steven Brodie Jr. says in the suit filed April 4 that officials did nothing when he reported the April 2007 incident and allowed discrimination to continue.

The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill reports the public works employee says he was asked to retrieve some equipment from a storage cage. He says when he went in, a co-worker locked him in and another taunted him, saying: "You throw a banana in there and he goes right in."

A jury last year found one of the workers guilty last year of bias intimidation, harassment and official misconduct.

Another worker is awaiting trial on similar charges.