Glass Shield

Martin's attorneys called city employees, who testified to Oliveros's campaign against Soul Night and her prolific use of derogatory terms such as molleto and chardo to describe Soul Night regulars. Under oath, Joy admitted he once played his "Johnny Rebel" tape recordings, old Southern music known to employ such racial epithets as "My wife ran off with a nigger," inside the city's taxpayer-funded police station.

Not surprisingly the jury found that Hialeah Gardens violated Martin's constitutional right to "enter into contracts with nonwhites." Martin was awarded $633,000 in damages.

The anonymous former cop, who is Latino, says since the day Clayton began her job, he had overheard other officers call her la negra, a Spanish derogatory word for blacks, and say that "she needed to go back to Liberty City.

"They ragged on her all the time," he says. "That department took a turn for the worse."