ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis police officer filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city, a supervisor and Chief John Hayden Tuesday, alleging that officials protected the founder of a popular local dog rescue organization and discriminated against the officer because he was not part of the “Lesbian Mafia.”

The suit says when Louis Naes, an officer since 2003, was assigned to the problem properties unit and animal abuse task force in 2012, supervisors blocked any investigation of a series of allegations against Stray Rescue of St. Louis founder Randy Grim. Grim was part of the task force.

Grim has previously denied those allegations to the Post-Dispatch.

After the Post-Dispatch made a Sunshine Law request for Stray Rescue records, a commander ordered Naes and his partner to exonerate Grim in one of the accusations, although they had conducted no investigation, the suit claims.

The suit also says Grim made racist and inappropriate comments.

Grim could not be immediately reached for comment, nor could Stray Rescue Executive Director Cassady Caldwell.