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Harrison Dillard and Aaron King are accusing Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp and seven high-ranking employees of passing over male minorities for promotions and retaliating against them for speaking up about the agency's "racially charged" environment, the Daily Record reports.
The pair filed the suit last week week in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The prosecutor's office in a statement for the Daily Record said it was looking forward to litigating the claims before the court.
"The case is without merit," the agency said, "and will be vigorously defended."
King resigned last week but has not yet been allowed to leave because of disciplinary charges against him, and is being forced to work without pay, he says in the suit.
Despite a disability and his decision to seek treatment for dependence on drugs or alcohol, the agency pursued unfounded charges against King, which are the reason for him still being in the office, the Daily Record says.
The agency apparently failed to investigate King and Dillard's internal affairs complaints and ignored racist behavior in the office, the suit says.
King said he once was told to sit outside a room where white employees where eating breakfast while Dillard said white employees referred to a black person as a "shine" and called minorities "scum" and "those people," the report says.
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