A jury in Des Moines, Iowa, gave a scathing indictment to a local storage systems company following a nine-month ordeal of racial harassment and retaliation that led to the firing of one employee.
Devin Michael Ellis, a former lead installer at Storage and Design Group Inc., was awarded $205,300 by a Polk County, Iowa, jury that found that the company and one of its managers, Ronald Patterson, subjected him to an abusive work environment before terminating him for having the audacity to express his displeasure with them.
Since Ellis began working for the Iowa-based corporation in December 2021, the warning flags have been present.
At the conclusion of his recruiting interview, Patterson reportedly stated, “Oh, one last thing,” a remark Ellis would hear numerous times at his Iowa workplace. I want your dreadlocks clipped, Ellis said he was informed. That was followed by an incessant stream of comments on his hair. Patterson compared his dreadlocks to worms and instructed him to cut them off at least 20 times.
However, the hair-related harassment was only the beginning.
According to Ellis’ lawsuit, Patterson frequently called African-American employees “monkeys” and instructed them to stop acting like monkeys—derogatory language he never used toward white employees. After Ellis approached him and said the remarks were insulting, Patterson absurdly accused Ellis of racism toward white people.
Despite Ellis’s resistance, the connection just grew more toxic because her mother and brother are white.
The rivalry interfered with work visits. According to the Atlanta Black Star, Ellis got into a fight with his white coworker Anthony Straylee at one employment because he didn’t want to be among Black coworkers.
In a text message to a manager, Straylee even brought up his family’s affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, stating that he didn’t want to be with Black people. However, Patterson later claimed that the incident marked a turning point in Ellis’ career and defended Straylee as a straight shooter.
Ellis persisted in complaining about the Iowa company, but instead of receiving assistance, he encountered defensive conduct. During one discussion, Patterson acknowledged making racial jokes but brushed them off as harmless.
In a week, Ellis lost his job.
Anti-Black racism is rampant in many places with a large white population. To the extent that anti-Black sentiment is commonplace. When I worked from home most of the time, my physical and mental health were better.This link: https://t.co/iy65Q2TySi
August 12, 2023, Deadric T. Williams (@doc_thoughts)
What was the company’s official explanation for Ellis’ termination? alleged noncompliance with the return policy for a company car.
Then, Samantha Gronewald, a judge in the Polk County District Court, identified a number of mistakes in that account. Despite the fact that Storage and Design Group’s disciplinary procedures were being disregarded, she noted that Ellis was fired immediately after he lodged a complaint with supervisors and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.
On August 1, 2025, a jury found in favor of Ellis, finding that Patterson had engaged in racial discrimination in private and that the corporation had retaliated against Ellis for raising his voice. The judgment awarded $51,000 for mental distress and $154,000 for retaliatory damages.
Ellis’s attorney, Stuart Higgins, hailed the decision as long needed justice.
According to him, the jury concluded that our client’s employer wrongfully fired him in reprisal for speaking out and that he had experienced significant emotional suffering as a result of ongoing racial discrimination at work.
Discrimination in hiring is just as common today as it was in 1989.
Even with identical resumes that simply differ in name, White people receive 36% more calls than Black people with the same qualifications and 24% more than Latino people.
There is no proof that White people are discriminated against.This link: https://t.co/A1pWrNwjiU
July 30, 2019 Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant)
Regarding the judgment, Patterson and Storage and Design Group have refrained from releasing any public statements.
Ellis, who endured months of humiliation in Iowa, saw the trial’s verdict as evidence that his fight was essential for him and all Black workers who have been instructed to keep their heads covered in hostile workplaces, and not simply for monetary compensation.
