A federal appeals court has upheld a jury's $225,000 award to a former Grambling State University police chief who claimed he was fired by the historically black school because he tried to hire a white assistant.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans sided Tuesday with Rodney Tureaud Jr., a black alumnus of Grambling who was hired as the university's police chief in October 2002. He was fired less than a year later.

Grambling denied retaliating against Tureaud because he supported a white applicant, Wesley Harris, to be hired as assistant police chief. The school cited other reasons for his dismissal, including allegations of rude conduct, inappropriate comments and poor judgment in arresting a student.

But the appeals court says a rational jury could have believed Tureaud's claims.

"It was the jury's prerogative to disbelieve the various legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons proffered by Grambling, and the jury was entitled to infer discrimination based on its rejection of those reasons," the three-judge panel wrote.

Tureaud claimed Angela Weaver, executive assistant to the president of Grambling, reviewed Harris' resume and expressed her disapproval that he had worked for the Ruston Police Department because she perceived it as "racist," according to the judges' ruling.

"Weaver recommended hiring a black man and training him instead of hiring Harris," the ruling said.

The 5th Circuit upheld the jury's unanimous verdict in 2005, but the panel reversed the trial judge's refusal to award attorney's fees to Tureaud. The appeals court said Tureaud is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees and costs.