Hartford Police Department v. Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (sc 20669)

Summary

The court reversed the Appellate Court and reinstated the judgment upholding the human rights referee's finding that the Hartford Police Department intentionally discriminated against Khoa Phan based on his Vietnamese ancestry. It held that substantial evidence supported both an inference of discrimination through the transfer of a supervisor's discriminatory animus and the referee's finding that the Department's stated reasons for termination were pretextual. The court emphasized that reviewing courts may not substitute their judgment for an agency's credibility and fact findings when the record contains substantial supporting evidence.