Three women who worked for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and a fourth who worked for the Washington State Patrol are suing the agencies in separate complaints, alleging harassment.
All of the claims were filed Thursday in Clark County Superior Court by Portland attorney Thomas Boothe, who declined to comment.
Jennifer Maphet, a corrections officer who was fired in March, contends that the sheriff’s office retaliated against her after she suffered a workplace injury in November 2009 that prevented her from returning to work. Among her injuries, she fractured her hand and tore her lateral meniscus on her right knee, according to the complaint.
Maphet alleges that county personnel subjected her to “differential treatment, challenged the severity of her injury and questioned her character,” the complaint states.
In the time between her injury and termination, she underwent 10 knee surgeries and thousands of hours of rehabilitation in an effort to return to work, the complaint said.
“Maphet loved working as a corrections officer, and would not have undergone so many painful surgeries if she did not desperately wish to return to her position with CCSO,” the complaint reads. “The harassment she had to endure over the years due to her injury and disability status, and her eventual termination on March 8, 2016, devastated Maphet and affected her both financially and emotionally.”
Another claim by Pandora Pierce, who worked in the records department for 20 years, alleges “differential treatment through pay disparity and a racially hostile work environment.” Pierce is an African-American woman. She contends that she’s witnessed multiple black employees subjected to differential treatment and “trumped up charges,” including Britt Easterly, a former jail employee who won a racial discrimination suit against the county earlier this year.
Pierce had previously filed a claim in 2007, alleging gender and race disparities in pay rates and increases. That case resolved after Pierce’s back pay was restored and her pay going forward was adjusted, according to the latest complaint.
In the new suit, Pierce asserts that the harassment “intensified rather than reduced after she tried to address it,” and that the sheriff’s office placed her on administrative leave last year without explanation. She was later demoted and forced to resign, the complaint states.
The stress she suffered left her a “wreck: crying, experiencing sleeplessness, nightmares, loss of appetite, and inability to meaningfully function,” the complaint said.
The final claim against the sheriff’s office by Erin Nolan, who served as chief civil deputy, alleges gender discrimination and a sexually hostile work environment, which included an unfounded investigation, and her being placed on administrative leave without explanation.
“The process was part of a concerted effort by CCSO to undermine women in senior positions who did not embrace the ‘old boys’ management of the department,” the complaint reads.
Nolan first raised concerns in 2011 over pay disparities, the complaint states, and then again earlier this year for derogatory material. She confronted Sheriff Chuck Atkins for making the comment, “Did he scream like a little girl?” during a meeting and mentioned another male employee who wore a shirt that read, “If a man is in the forest and there’s no woman there to tell him he’s wrong, is he still wrong?” the complaint said.
“Nolan became increasingly concerned that department command staff was fostering an environment in which male employees were free to oppose female supervisors on the basis of gender, which substantially undercut her authority. She was concerned that males were being afforded opportunities that females in enforcement were not,” the complaint said.
In July, Nolan was diagnosed with “post-traumatic stress secondary to the conditions under which she was working,” according to the complaint.
She submitted a letter of resignation last month, after a combined 29 years with the department. Her final day is Saturday. She had planned to work several more years, the complaint states.
Clark County Undersheriff Mike Cooke said Thursday that he had not yet seen the complaints, and therefore could not comment.
State police lawsuit
Maureen Pellymounter, who served 20 years with WSP, alleges that she was subjected to a sexually hostile work environment, and when she objected, the agency retaliated against her by assigning her to janitorial work. When she suffered a workplace injury in January 2014, WSP retaliated further and aggravated her injury. Pellymounter was terminated in December 2015 without cause, according to the complaint.
Pellymounter asserts that she was discouraged from seeking a position with more responsibilities, was passed over multiple times for positions she applied for, despite being told she had done the best on her interview and presentation, was denied tuition reimbursement when other employees were approved and was given a hard time when she tried to transfer to another location, the complaint states.
One male trooper was recorded making derogatory comments about Pellymounter with a dispatcher, and a group of male colleagues discussed her personal life and went through her work files conducting a private investigation into her, including searching her Facebook, the complaint said. When she confronted her peers, they made allegations against Pellymounter, leading to multiple internal affairs investigations, according to the lawsuit.
Efforts to reach a WSP spokesperson for comment before press time were unsuccessful.