07:27 AM CST on Wednesday, March 22, 2006

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

Jeremy Desel's 11 News report |

EEOC attorney discusses settlement

A Montgomery County company has agreed to pay $1 million to a man who accused his fellow employees of choking him with a noose in 2002.

KHOU

Charles HIckman says he's still haunted by the memories.

Charles Hickman, a black man, said while he worked at Commercial Coating Service Inc., his white coworkers subjected him to racial slurs and allegedly tied a noose around his neck in a company bathroom.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Coalition sued the company, which is under new ownership and is now known as Commercial Coating Service International Limited.

“Without a doubt, in the 16 years that I’ve been practicing, this is the worst case of discrimination I’ve ever seen, and it was very difficult to believe that this sort of thing was going on,” EEOC senior attorney Rudy Sustaita said.

In its lawsuit, the EEOC said the company did not stop its employees, including its managers, from harassing Hickman on the basis of his race.

Hickman said he's still haunted by the memories.

"I've been going through a lot of difficult stuff trying to put in my mind what happened to me. I still haven't been able to get over it," Hickman said. "It is still there. I'm still scared."

“In addition to being choked with a hangman’s noose, Mr. Hickman was called the N-word and a monkey,” EEOC attorney Jim Sacher said.

Hickman was the only black employee of a hundred workers at the Conroe pipe company.

Hickman says he would like to get back to work someday, but he is still under psychological treatment. He said he's only held part time odd jobs since 2002.

The company said is not conceding liability for the actions of the employees.

“At first it was hard to believe, but once you started hearing the testimony of the depositions of the people who were talking about what happened, it was pretty amazing to see that they were confirming everything that this individual was saying about what happened,” Sustaita said.

In addition, the president of the company will write Hickman an apology.

According to the EEOC, the Conroe company will also overhaul its practices to improve its culture.