A federal judge has ended a Kenosha police officer's discrimination lawsuit against the city and its last two police chiefs. Officer Pep Moretti, formerly known as Peter Percak, has worked for the Kenosha Police Department since 2009 and claimed he was denied promotion to sergeant because of his sexual orientation. In a 24-page decision issued Thursday, Nov. 5, Judge William C. Griesbach ruled for the defendants on every claim.
The case centered on two promotion decisions. Moretti ranked near the top of the department's 2021 sergeant eligibility list, and when a sergeant retired in July 2022, then-Chief Eric Larsen left the vacancy unfilled. Larsen said the department was short on patrol officers and needed staffing on the street more than another supervisor, and the judge found that explanation genuine, with no evidence the decision turned on Moretti's orientation.
Chief Patrick Patton, who took over in January 2023, changed the promotion process to give more weight to education and outside interviews. Moretti ranked near the bottom of the 2023 list and was not among the three officers promoted. The judge noted that Moretti himself acknowledged the revised process was fair, and rejected the argument that refusing Pride patches showed hostility, finding the department had also refused other patch and pin requests and applied its uniform rules evenly.
Moretti also claimed the department retaliated after he filed a discrimination complaint with the state Equal Rights Division in August 2023 by cutting his work training new recruits. Court records showed he logged the fourth-highest number of field training hours in 2023 and the most of any officer in 2024. His training assignments were restricted for a time in 2025 over supervisors' concerns about his complaints and possible burnout, and he was later assigned a recruit again. The judge found legitimate reasons for the pause and no proven link to the complaint. The state agency had earlier found no probable cause to believe the city discriminated against him.
The ruling also recounts a 2016 investigation in which a young man accused the off-duty officer of drugging and sexually assaulting him. Moretti acknowledged sexual contact and said it was consensual. The Walworth County district attorney declined to file criminal charges, and a Kenosha internal review closed without discipline.
With summary judgment granted in full, the case is over at the district court level and Moretti receives nothing from the lawsuit. He can still ask an appeals court to review the decision.
