Of the five people who’ve filed discrimination lawsuits against the Phoenix Suns and Mercury over the past year, only one was still employed by the organization. Now they’ve been fired.
Court records say Gene Traylor was first hired by the Suns as director of safety, security and risk management. Traylor sued the team in May alleging discrimination, retaliation and other harms but didn’t quit his job.
Now Traylor has been fired, according to his lawyers, for allegedly being untruthful and sharing private information.
Attorney Cortney Walters said a review by the Suns that led to Traylor’s firing was not a real search for truth.
“This so-called independent investigation was a pretext used to justify a retaliatory termination,” Walters said.
Stacey Mitch, Phoenix Suns senior vice president of communications, issued the following comment: “While the organization typically does not comment on internal personnel matters, Mr. Traylor, or his attorney, Sheree Wright, apparently opted to publicize his termination. Mr. Traylor was terminated from his position as a security manager because an independent, outside investigation concluded that he violated company policies with respect to confidential information about security operations and he was intentionally untruthful with the investigator.”
Lawyers for the team deny Traylor’s claims and have identified 13 possible courtroom defenses.
“The reasons provided for Mr. Traylor’s dismissal remain ambiguous, however, we trust that the evidence will speak for itself as the case proceeds in court.” Sheree Wright, another attorney for Traylor, said in a prepared statement.
