UPDATED: New sex-harassment lawsuit filed against Fairfax County by female firefighter
UPDATE
Tony Castrilli, Fairfax County Director of Public Affairs (and an old friend and colleague), sent this statement that he says was sent to Channel 9 for its story:
“We cannot comment on a pending lawsuit. However, we want to assure our community that harassment of any kind is not tolerated by Fairfax County. Fairfax County has written policies that prohibit harassment, and all county employees are required to participate in sexual harassment and hostile work environment training. Allegations of harassment are taken seriously and fully investigated. Anyone who is proven to have participated in this type of unacceptable behavior is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.“
I will say again that not talking about a pending lawsuit and/or providing important details of a personnel matter are big issues when trying to deal with reputation management issues.. Lawyers will very often tell you to say nothing because of the potential to harm the defense of a civil suit and, in some cases, the rights of the employee. But the greater harm may be to the reputation of the organization.
Fairfax County fought for about 18-months over releasing information to the family, the public and even prosecutors in the case of John Geer, who was shot by a police officer in August, 2013. It eventually came out that the county was mostly focused on liability rather than revealing the truth about a bad police shooting. It was a cover-up. In the end, the county still paid Geer’s family almost $3 million and, at the same time, greatly tarnished the police department’s reputation — something the department is still trying to recover from almost three years after the shooting occurred.
Based on the TV interview, you get the feeling this is all going to get worse before it gets better for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. The latest suit takes direct aim at the leadership, making the claim sexual harassment was not seriously dealt with by Chief Bowers and his staff. Whether true or not, these serious allegations are out there for the public to see and more may follow. The smarter choice is to deal with it now in a direct and transparent manner, even if the truth costs you a few extra bucks.
EARLIER
A lawyer, who last week told the Washington Post, “… sex-based harassment happens to nearly every woman who works for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department”, has filed another lawsuit on behalf of a female firefighter (details of the lawsuit at Curt Varone’s FireLawBlog.com). The hits keep on coming for Farifax County in the aftermath of the suicide of Firefighter Nicole Mittendorff. Watching the interview by reporter Peggy Fox, you get the impression this may not be all attorney Ellen Renaud has for the department.
While the lawsuit(s) will be battled in the months and years to come through depositions, lawyer’s meetings and maybe eventually court testimony, the image of the department and its leadership are very much in play right now. As I’ve said previously, silence is not usually your friend in a situation like this, but it has long been SOP in Fairfax County (the entire county government).
For those in charge in Fairfax County, you might want to think of the Seinfeld episode where George decides to no longer trust his instincts (which were usually pretty poor) and began doing the opposite of what his gut was telling him. Suddenly things started going George’s way. The gut in Fairfax County, and many other places where transparency is not a priority, is to remain silent in the face of lawsuits and personnel issues, even when things are clearly going to hell around them.
Doing the opposite of your gut here requires strong leadership, candor, transparency and probably some pain. If the problem is real, let the public know now, share the details and explain how it will be fixed. Delaying the inevitable just stretches the pain out over a much longer period of time, often making it even more difficult to recover. If there really is no problem, tell us what’s going on and provide an honest and sincere defense against the allegations.
Previously:
How will Fairfax County chief respond to lawyer’s statement about harassment of female firefighters?
Here’s what the Fairfax County fire chief didn’t say during his cyber-bullying press conference
Fairfax County cyber-bullying story picks up traction — but will transparency & action follow?
New accusations against the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, which is still reeling from the suicide of Nicole Mittendorf and allegations that she was harassed by fellow fighters on-line.
WUSA9 has obtained a lawsuit that alleges the department did not stop a fire captain from sexually harassing a female firefighter he supervised.
Despite the fire chief’s pledge to investigate and root out sexual harassment, several female firefighters tell WUSA9’s Peggy Fox that nothing has changed.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Magaly “Maggie” Hernandez claims that when she told her superiors about sexual harassment by her captain, she was reprimanded.
“She complained to her battalion chief, Cheri Zosh, and when Cheri Zosh attempted to take action, upper management stopped her from doing that,” said Attorney Ellen Renaud, who is representing Hernandez.
“He wanted to hug her, he made sexual innuendoes towards her, told her he’d like to see her in a bathing suit; he invaded her space,” said Renaud.
She says the captain stalked Hernandez by using the software TeleStaff, “He wanted to know if she went to the bathroom.”
Even after Hernandez was moved to another station, Renaud says the captain was obsessed with her and continued to stalk her.
“He admitted at a hearing that he looked on TeleStaff to find out where she was and then he recorded it in his own Outlook.” During that hearing, 1,700 pages of this tracking information was produced, says Renaud. She says the captain was given a written reprimand.
“Stalking and everything he did warrants much more than a written reprimand because he’s continuing to stalk her,” said Renaud.
Hernandez claims her superiors formally reprimanded her by forcibly reassigning her to another station, which prevents promotion.
In the weeks since Nicole Mittendorf took her own life, several female firefighters have contacted Ellen Renaud, who won a 2011 sexual harassment lawsuit against the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department. A federal jury ruled that the Department knew of and tolerated a male lieutenant’s sexual harassment of firefighter Mary Getts Bland.
In that case, Lt. Timothy Young reportedly asked Bland when she was a recruit, “Do you enjoy having sex with more than one partner?” and “Do you like to be watched when you masturbate?” according to our editorial partners at the Washington Post. Young also asked Bland to visit adult sex-toy shops with him and made sexual innuendos. Bland claimed the department retaliated against her when she sought shift changes.
Before and after Mittendorf disappeared, people claiming to be firefighters posted horrible, sexist and defaming messages about her on the web forum Fairfax Underground alleging that she was having an affair with a superior.
After her body was found in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia State Police revealed a suicide note had been left in her car. A VSP spokeswoman says there is no evidence on-line bullying played a part in Nicole’s suicide.
But the only person who really knows is dead.
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Chief Richard Bowers says they are conducting an internal investigation into those on-line posts. So far, they found none of the posts came from county devices. Bowers also said in a statement that “there was no departmental knowledge of any bullying or harassment regarding Firefighter-Paramedic Mittendorff prior to her disappearance.”
Renaud finds that hard to believe. “I’ve also talked to one firefighter who observed harassment of Nicole based on this alleged affair, in the fire department. Not just online, but in the firehouse. “
“If you want to root it out of the fire department, you need to have a true, no nonsense, zero tolerance, that no officer can engage in sexual harassment and continue as an officer.” She said the firefighter who saw Mittendorff being harassed about that rumored affair has not been questioned by investigators.
Renaud says it’s not important whether or not Mittendorff had an affair. The problem is any harassment she or others might have endured, or still endure.
Firefighters who spoke with WUSA9 were too fearful of being recorded. One retired female firefighter said harassment was so bad, she tried to kill herself.
