‘A Bullet in Your Head’: White Supervisor Reportedly Shouted ‘White Power’ as Workers Raised Fists When Black Employee Walked Into Long Island Public Works
A Black and Latino man who says he endured several years of racial insults and slurs from co-workers at the Suffolk County Department of Public Works in Long Island, New York, was physically assaulted by a supervisor and repeatedly turned down for promotions, is suing the county for racial discrimination. Julio Germain, 40, began working for the county public works department as an auto equipment operator in the highway division in November 2019, according to his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Sept. 24, and obtained by Atlanta Black Star. By early 2022, his work environment had become hostile and abusive, the complaint says. Former Suffolk County Public Works Department worker Julio Germain (bottom left and right) filed a federal racial discrimination lawsuit against the county in Long Island, New York, on Sept. 24, 2025. (Photos: PIX11 video screenshots, Suffolk County Department of Public Works website) On Jan. 3 of that year, his supervisor, Doug Buddahagen, who is white, told Germain that his new assignment was picking up garbage along roadways. Buddahagen then approached Germain from behind and hit him on the back of the head with a closed fist, knocking his head down, the lawsuit says. Germain, feeling scared and threatened, filed a police report. Another white supervisor, Dan Coffey, allegedly had a habit of making racist comments to his work crew, including yelling out “white power” whenever he would see Germain, which would usually be followed by other white employees raising their fists to salute him. ‘My Face … Is Still Numb’: Cops Brutally Beat and Arrest Black Man for Recording Them — A Jury Let Them Off the Hook, But a Judge Just Flipped the Script In March 2022, Coffey came into a break room full of workers at the end of a workday in and repeatedly played a notorious episode of “Southpark” wherein multiple characters used the N-word, which a dozen white workers in the room found amusing, erupting in laughter, the complaint says, but which Germain and another Black employee, Frank Parra, found offensive, and remained silent. While the Southpark video was being played, a white foreman, Mark Tucker, gleefully repeated the racist phrase, “crust a—ni—as,” the lawsuit says. Another time in the break room, a co-worker told Germain, “If you are an illegal, you should get a bullet in your head” in the presence of two supervisors, who laughed along with the other workers, Germain claims. The lawsuit says making racist remarks in front of the boss seemed to lead to career advancement for some workers. After Brandon Busceti, who is white, called Germain a “wetback” outside the foreman and supervisor’s offices, he started getting better work details, the complaint contends. After Germain attended a party at a foreman Tommy Coan’s house in August of 2022, he says Coffey walked up to him, Coan and Tucker and shouted, “How did you let this N-word into this party and not me?” and “What’s up with Julio, I heard he ate all the watermelon at the party.” Buddahagen repeatedly mocked Germain’s race and religion, he says, by singing “slave songs” such as “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and by “doing black face impersonation” in front of Germain, Parra and other employees. Germain made multiple complaints about the physical abuse and humiliating racial comments to his superiors, including the Suffolk County Public Works Department Director James Agressi, the complaint says, but no remedial measures were ever taken. Instead, he was “constantly ostracized and isolated by SCDPW supervisors and fellow employees,” the lawsuit says. Germain got garbage detail while white employees were assigned preferred tasks involving driving and using machinery. Meanwhile, Germain says he applied for several promotions and was repeatedly passed over, only to see less qualified white employees hired for those positions. In June and September of 2022, he applied for heavy equipment operator positions that were subsequently given to white employees, the complaint says. In October 2022, he was removed from an opportunity to obtain a pesticide license while a white employee who had been on the job for only two months was given that opportunity. In November of 2022, a white employee who had obtained his commercial driver’s license to drive 18-wheel vehicles two weeks prior was assigned driver duty over Germain, who had held his license for two years at that time. Fed up with the disparate and discriminatory treatment, in December 2023, Germain filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, which, by July 2023, found probable cause existed that Suffolk County had engaged in the unlawful discriminatory practices he had complained about. He was twice denied promotions to open tanker positions in 2023 and 2024. The first time the job was given to a white employee who was on probation, which should have disqualified that employee per county policy, he says. The second time, a white man who’d worked as an auto equipment operator for only one year was selected over Germain, who had four years of experience in the position at that point. Germain told PIX11 in 2023 that he has a learning disability, and his co-workers began to “use it against me, call me ‘stupid,’ call me ‘retarded,’ along with relentless racial slurs. “Nobody should be working in an environment like that, especially a government entity,” he said. The lawsuit also claims that county employees began spying on Germain during the summer of 2024, at work and at home. The public works department “caused a camera to exist inside the air conditioning unit in the tower room” that Germain was assigned to, and a supervisor had employees follow him home and take photos of his house. Germain quit his county job on Aug. 13, 2024. On June 26, 2025, he received a Notice of Right To Sue Letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and filed his federal civil rights lawsuit three months later. The lawsuit accuses Suffolk County of racially discriminating against him by creating an objectively hostile or abusive work environment that unreasonably interfered with his work performance, including repeated discriminatory acts, utterances and conduct against Germain that were humiliating, intimidating, hostile and physical. The public works department failed to stop the discriminatory acts and conduct, the complaint asserts, and some of its employees encouraged, condoned and approved them. Germain seeks a jury trial to determine damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, front and back pay, and other financial losses, as well as punitive damages and legal costs. He also asks the court for injunctive relief that will order the county to end its discriminatory practices and implement court-approved policies and procedures preventing future discrimination and appoint a monitor to oversee how the county makes those changes. Germain also wants the county to issue him a written apology. The Suffolk County Executive’s Office, which oversees the Department of Public Works, declined to comment to reporters, citing the pending litigation. The county has 21 days after being served with the complaint to file a response in court.
