Local News in Brief : Panel Upholds Bias Ruling

The Civil Service Commission voted Wednesday to support a hearing officer’s findings that a Los Angeles County Latino deputy marshal had been discriminated against because his departmental promotion was delayed.

The commission also supported a recommendation to provide back pay to Deputy Marshal Ronald Rocha from May 1, 1987, the date that the county Marshal’s Department released a list of candidates who had been promoted to sergeant.

Rocha, who was eventually promoted to sergeant in February, was fifth on the list behind four white candidates and claimed he had been discriminated against.

Rocha, who has been a deputy marshal for 20 years, took his case to the Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Assn., which filed a discrimination appeal on his behalf.