A Muslim deputy is suing the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for racial and religious discrimination. The complaint was filed Thursday morning by the Council on American-Islamic Relations on behalf of Waleed Albakri, who claims he was arrested and fired out of retaliation.

The details of this civil rights lawsuit describes years of harassment by his coworkers and superiors that was sexually explicit, racially disturbing and offensive toward his religion.

“The sad part is, administration and the supervisors knew about it, but they all just covered their eyes and said this is the culture,” Albakri said.

Albakri was hired by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2008 and promoted to the drug unit in 2010.

“I was an undercover agent,” he said.

He said that’s when the harassment started.

“It was a hostile work, poison environment,” Albakri said.

He said other deputies would make offensive comments about his family, Islam and his Arab ethnicity.

“I said, you know, enough is enough,” he said.

So he filed a written complaint. That’s when he said he experienced retaliation and became the subject of a criminal investigation.

“I was arrested for alleged insurance fraud,” Albakri said. “And the charges were dropped five months later.”

While he was re-instated to light duty, his arrest made headlines, exposing his identity.

“If your identity is exposed, then you’re done,” Albakri said. “Your career is done as an undercover.”

He returned to work, but not as a law enforcement officer.

“I went through a huge depression, and I moved out of my apartment where we lived at the time, fearing retaliation from my coworkers that I complained on and from the people I arrested while I was undercover,” Albakri said.

He said the harassment continued and he filed a second complaint. Soon after, he was arrested again for the same insurance fraud investigation.

“The only new evidence was that he complained about the discrimination he was facing,” said Katherine Heffer, a civil rights attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The charges were again dropped. He returned to work behind the scenes, where he was ultimately fired.

“They painted me as a criminal,” Albakri said. “I want the sheriff’s office to take responsibility for what they did and I want to be re-instated.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said they have received the lawsuit and they do not comment on pending litigation.