A federal jury awarded $324,775 to a former Erie County Water Authority worker Wednesday after finding that he was the victim of unlawful termination, a hostile work environment and civil rights violations.

Scott M. Matusick contended that he was harassed and then fired because his Water Authority superiors resented that he dated and then married a black woman.

He contended that co-workers and some of his supervisors repeatedly used “the N-word” and other racist terms in the workplace but that nothing was done to correct the problem after he made complaints.

In a hard-fought trial that began Aug. 19, lawyers for the Water Authority characterized Matusick as a lazy, careless worker whose firing had nothing to do with his romantic life.

“The other side spent every minute of this trial making Scott out to be a liar, but the jury believed Scott,” said Matusick’s attorney, Harvey P. Sanders. “The jury could see what happened.”

Matusick and his wife were overcome with emotion after the verdict was announced in the court of U. S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

“I am pleased with the verdict. I really feel that they got it right,” said Anita Starks Matusick, who said the ordeal caused emotional suffering for her and her husband for years.

The jury awarded Matusick far less money than he had asked for, noted Adam W. Perry, lead attorney for the Water Authority.

“His attorney was asking for millions,” Perry said. “Of course, we are disappointed with the conclusion they reached. . . . But the judge did dismiss claims against five other people named in the suit and dismissed 23 of the 40 claims that were made, and the jury knocked out five more of the plaintiff’s claims with their verdict.”

Perry said Matusick was fired in 2006 from his job as an emergency dispatcher after an independent hearing officer found him guilty of sleeping on the job and failing to handle a customer complaint. Perry said that the firing had nothing to do with racism and told The Buffalo News that he plans to appeal the verdict.

The jury found the Water Authority and two of its officials, John J. Kuryak and James P. Lisinski, liable for unlawfully terminating Matusick in 2006. They also found the Water Authority, Kuryak, Lisinski and another of its officials, Gary W. Bluman, had allowed a hostile work environment.

Jurors rejected Matusick’s contention that he had been subjected to unlawful retaliation for making complaints, but they found that the Water Authority, Bluman, Kuryak, Lisinski and the authority’s executive director, Robert A. Mendez, all had violated Matusick’s civil rights.

While he did not deny that Matusick had engaged in some wrongdoing on the job, Sanders tried to convince jurors that racist remarks were commonplace in the Water Authority workplace, and he said the agency’s leaders did nothing to prevent it.

Sanders said Matusick was never bothered by his superiors until it became widely known that he was dating and then living with Starks, a Niagara Falls native. They married last year.

Thirty witnesses, including Matusick, testified. Many Water Authority employees denied ever hearing racist language at any time in their workplace.

Matusick, 44, of Hamburg, said it was painful and frustrating to sit in the courtroom and hear opposing lawyers portray him as a liar, day after day.

“It was real hard. I felt like I was living the whole thing over again,” Matusick said. “[Water Authority lawyers] called me a lair, over and over, and the jury believed me. I feel vindicated.”

Matusick now works at a food-processing plant. His wife is related to two pro athletes from Niagara Falls. Her first cousin is Jonny Flynn, a guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association, and her nephew is former University at Buffalo running back James Starks, now with the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers.

The authority is insured, Perry said, and even if its appeals are unsuccessful, “this verdict will cost water customers nothing.”

dherbeck@buffnews.comnull