COMMISSIONER OF CHP DENIES RACE ALLEGATIONS.

Byline: Felisa Cardona Staff Writer

California Highway Patrol Commissioner Dwight ``Spike'' Helmick Jr. took the stand in federal court Tuesday, defending his agency against a class action race discrimination lawsuit alleging the CHP fails to promote enough minorities.

The CHP's chief testified in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that he did not use a racial slur, tolerate discrimination in his department or give whites an advantage on promotional exams.

Commissioner said he never called Assistant Chief Greg Manuel, ``boy,'' a pejorative term against blacks.

``I am very aware of the derogatory nature of that term,'' Helmick testified. ``I do not use those terms, those racial slurs.''

Retired Lt. Jeff Paige, 60, of Diamond Bar filed the suit in 1995 after he says he was denied promotions because he is black. Paige also claims that he put up with decades of racial remarks from other officers in his 30- year career.

At least 1,000 officers have joined in the lawsuit, most of them blacks and Latinos. The officers claim that in some cases that they were passed over for promotions even though they tested higher than whites. They also say the answers to promotional exams were given to white officers before the tests were taken so that they could be moved up.

Plaintiff's attorney Dan Stormer asked Helmick if he knew of an incident during an off-duty card game where Deputy Commissioner Ed Gomez made a racially insensitive remark to Bill Kelly, a black deputy commissioner who was stationed in Los Angeles.

Helmick said the incident was investigated, but that no disciplinary action was taken against Gomez.

Under questioning, Helmick said he never gave breaks to white officers by giving them the answers to exams, nor did he lower the scores of a black officer after a test was taken.

Felisa Cardona, [phone]

felisa.cardona(at)sbsun.com