Ex-Navy photographer’s discrimination suit moves forward

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A federal judge has allowed a former Navy aerial photographer to proceed with claims that he was pushed out of his job in favor of younger, female contractors with less training and experience.

Judge Theodore D. Chuang partially dismissed Gregory L. Davis’ suit, allowing a retaliation claim to stand as-is while giving Davis a chance to amend his claims of age and gender discrimination claims in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.

“I did my job [and] exceeded expectations but all I faced was hostility,” Davis said Thursday. “Instead of being helped by the leadership, the leadership was an impediment to my progress.”

Chuang, in dismissing the age and gender counts, said Davis’ complaint did not demonstrate Davis was “performing at a level that met his employer’s legitimate expectations” at the time of his firing.

Morris E. Fischer, of the eponymous law firm in Silver Spring, one of Davis’ lawyers, said an amended complaint will be filed by the Aug. 29 deadline Chuang set. The original complaint was filed in January.

Davis was 39 when he joined the Department of the Navy in October 2011 based at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. His job involved taking photos of planes in flight, sometimes as they dropped weapons or released bombs, he said. The photos would be used by Navy officials in evaluating aircraft, weapons systems and their components, according to the complaint.

Davis previously spent eight years enlisted in the Air Force, according to the complaint, rising to the rank of staff sergeant and flying more than 100 combat hours. He also received extensive training from the Department of Defense on photography regulations. Davis said he took some of the few aerial photos of New York City and Washington, D.C., following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Davis was a “team leader” to the female, part-time contractors and remained first in line for aerial photography assignments unless he was unavailable, the lawsuit states. But Davis’ supervisor, Gerard Garay, allegedly gave more and more favorable flight assignments to the women, one of whom was “seen so often in Garay’s office that she was referred to by [other] employees as Garay’s ‘girl toy,’” the lawsuit states.

“The deference to go to the female contractors was clear, apparent and immediate,” Davis said.

Davis missed out on so many flights that he failed to maintain the required minimum amount of flight time needed for his position, which is one flight every 30 days, the lawsuit states.

When Davis did fly, it was often with pilots who were skeptical of his credentials because of a survey Garay emailed that put Davis “in a bad light with all aircrew,” the lawsuit states. Despite Davis’ considerable experience, one pilot reviewed with him how the ejection seat works and another pulled out an instruction manual prior to a flight, Davis said.

The lack of trust meant Davis noticed pilots had one eye on him and one eye on flying the plane when they went up for a shoot, which in turn affected Davis’ ability to do his job.

“If I cannot trust the pilot in front of me has my trust, it becomes an issue of, Do I focus on my job or worry about the guy flying into the other plane?” he said.

Garay also accused Davis of releasing an unauthorized photo for public use, which Davis said he would not do because of his prior training — and could not do in any event, because he never had access to the password-protected websites where the photos were posted.

Davis was fired in June 2012, the complaint states. He is now the senior civilian photographer at Dover Air Force Base, where he says he has won awards for his photographs.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland, which is representing the Navy, had no comment on Chuang’s ruling.

The case is Gregory L. Davis v. Ray Mabus, 8:14-cv-00148-TDC, U.S. District Court, Greenbelt.