A federal jury in Suffolk County has delivered a discrimination verdict and a $2.65 million judgment to a former black-Hispanic Verizon field technician who alleged that he'd been discriminated against for years by white supervisors who treated white field technicians differently, according to the man's attorney and a verdict sheet.

The jury's verdict and damages award, which was handed down March 26 after a two-and-half-week trial, included $1.85 million in punitive damages against certain defendants that included Verizon New York and two former supervisors of the plaintiff, the verdict sheet showed.

The plaintiff, Adan Abreu, had been a field technician with Verizon for about 27 years before he says he finally felt compelled, in 2015, to take early retirement because of discriminatory and harassing treatment he'd received since at least 2007, according to a complaint in the suit.

His allegations, as detailed in an amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District for New York, included claims that he'd been singled out and targeted by supervisors for years while working as the only non-Caucasian field technician assigned to Fire Island, a position that Abreu said was considered a promotion and had come to him because of seniority he'd earned.

Abreu was allegedly transferred out of the Fire Island position back to a mainland position in 2012, based on the alleged pretextual reason of him being seen not wearing his Verizon work shirt, which he claimed white workers often did not wear. In reality, Abreu claimed in his suit, it was because his was targeted and disfavored based on race and national origin.

In a statement, Abreu's attorney, Frederick Brewington, said that the 10-person jury's “award of $2,655,000 serves as a lesson to corporations big and small that people have rights and that there is a price to be paid when you abuse people and discriminate against them.”

Paul Galligan, a Seyfarth Shaw partner who represented Verizon and related defendants, could not be reached Monday for comment on the case and the jury's verdict and award.

According to the complaint and Brewington, who issued a news release about the verdict, Abreu was transferred in 2007 from a mainland technician position to a field technician position on Fire Island. The complaint asserted that the Fire Island position was considered a promotion because of the opportunity to earn overtime pay there and make significantly more money. It also was known for having less daily direct supervision, according to the suit.

But a supervisor of Abreu's on Fire Island, Richard Francis, who was named as a defendant, allegedly “singled out [Abreu] for differential and discriminatory treatment, making his life miserable.”

Francis “would ridicule the Plaintiff, single him out for various things, and target the Plaintiff and not his white peers,” including by assigning him for a period of time to zone where there was no bathroom, the amended complaint continued.

It also said that “although Defendant Francis never made any formal complaints about Plaintiff, he constantly sought to incite Plaintiff for no stated reason.” And according to the complaint, Francis threatened Abreu by telling him that he 'would be sure to get [plaintiff] out of [there] before [Francis] retires.'”

In 2012, according to Brewington and the complaint, Francis retired, but a new supervisor stepped into the foreman role, David Lucas. Lucas allegedly continued to target Abreu.

That summer, Abreu was allegedly assigned on numerous occasions to work in areas covered with poison ivy, the complaint said, and he removed his Verizon work shirt while working in those areas so as to not later pass on any contamination. White workers did the same, Abreu alleged.

Later in the summer, about three days after Lucas began has foreman, Lucas approached some white workers and told them to put on their Verizon shirts. Then he allegedly approached Abreu and asked him why his work shirt was not on.

Several days later, Abreu was allegedly told by Lucas, who was a named defendant, that “he would be removed from working on Fire Island” because he had not been wearing his Verizon work shirt.

Abreu later initiated a complaint internally at Verizon about discrimination, Brewington said in a phone interview Monday.

Brewington added in his statement that later, in the process of fighting discrimination and retaliation, the New York State Division of Human Rights found in an Abreu investigation that “white employees were not reprimanded for not wearing their Shirt or wearing shorts as they reprimanded [Mr. Abreu].”

According to Brewington, it also found that “other employees committed more serious infractions, but were either not transferred from Fire Island to a different location or were reinstated to Fire Island.”

Abreu filed his federal lawsuit in 2015, alleging civil rights and state Human Rights Law violations.

According to the verdict sheet, the jurors awarded $55,000 to Abreu for lost overtime compensation; $750,000 in compensatory damages for pain suffering and emotional distress; and the $1.85 million in punitive damages.

Abreu had alleged, among other affects from the discrimination, that he suffered loss of sleep, physical and emotional anxiety and depression, and was forced to take three different absences for short-term disability as a result of his anxiety.

Brewington said by phone Monday that at trial, “I think the defendants waffled back and forth between what their real reason was and what their stated reason was” for transferring Abreu off of Fire Island.

“I heard from jurors [in a post-trial interview] that they did not believe the Verizon witnesses and that they wished Mr. Abreu well,” he also said.