Monday, August 17, 2009

Corrections Officer Accuses Superiors of Sexual Harassment

OMAHA, Neb.

A former Dakota County corrections officer has sued the county, its sheriff and other superiors alleging they pressured female employees into sexual relationships and those who refused their advances were treated as outcasts.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha last week on behalf of Toni Duncan, calls the work environment she chose to leave in 2007 a "cesspool" in which superiors misused their power for their own sexual gratification. It seeks unspecified damages.

Attorneys for the Sioux City, Iowa, woman say she's not the first and won't be the last to raise issues with the problems in the northeastern Nebraska county.

The county investigated related claims in 2007, but its findings were never made public, according to Duncan's lawsuit, which alleges a cover-up.

"This is a genuine mess. The more we get into it, the more messy it gets," said attorney Dewey Sloan, who along with Brian Buckmeier represents both Duncan and Williams.

An attorney for the county called Duncan's allegations mystifying and suspicious.

"I have no clue where these allegations are coming from," attorney Vince Valentino said Monday.

Sloan also represents Charvette Williams, another corrections officer who sued the county in June alleging unfair pay and harassment. The Sioux City woman alleged the hostile work environment left her feeling trapped in a sexual relationship with a chief deputy.

Sloan said he and Buckmeier are working to file several other lawsuits in coming weeks making similar claims.

Valentino said neither Duncan nor Williams took their sexual harassment allegations to the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission or its federal counterpart to investigate. He said that's always the first step for anyone serious about such claims.

Dewey said Williams did file a claim with the state commission, although it didn't address sexual harassment. It wasn't until later, when Williams became less fearful, that she felt willing to talk about the additional allegations.

In Duncan's case, she waited too long to take the claim to the state commission, Dewey said.

Duncan quit in November 2007, after a little over a year with the county, according to her lawsuit.

The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission can investigate employment claims within 300 days of when the alleged harassment happened.

The report completed by a private law firm in 2007 was recently sealed by the Dakota County Board to protect people who offered confidential information, board Chairman Bill McLarty said.

McLarty said he never read the report and couldn't discuss its findings.

The report was shared with Attorney General Jon Bruning's office, which found that the allegations did not rise to the level of a criminal matter, according to a letter dated July 30, 2007.

A spokeswoman for Bruning couldn't immediately comment on the report or the attorney general's conclusions.

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