ENEWSLETTER: May 2017

The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington

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The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a well-respected litigation firm with an office in Hempstead, Long Island. Our focus is primarily in the area of civil rights, voting rights, employment discrimination, police misconduct, personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and criminal law. However, the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a full- service law firm handling matters in numerous areas of law and providing a wide range of services from contract formation to litigation and trial practice.

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Court Denies Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Retaliatory and Hostile Work Environment Claims Filed by Female African-American Nassau County Correction Officer

The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, ruled in favor of Mary Williams, a female African-American Nassau County Correction officer who sued the County of Nassau, the Nassau County Correctional Center, Mary Elisabeth Ostermann, Antonio Patino, Sergeant Steven O’Malley, Acting Sheriff Michael J. Sposato and Officer Phil Lonigro, citing a hostile work environment and retaliation. The Defendants filed a motion to dismiss those claims, but that motion was denied on all substantive claims.

On September 16, 2014, Ms. Williams noticed a swastika and the letters "KKK" carved into the doorframe by her post. Ms. Williams was disturbed and very upset that these racially based sketches were in an area accessible only to employees. She requested an internal investigation. Although two Internal Affairs Correction Officers, Officer Pierce and Officer Firth, came to take pictures of the offensive carvings, they did not interview Ms. Williams about this matter, nor did they “take immediate measures to ensure [the] Plaintiff’s safety.”

Although Ms. Williams notified her supervisor seeking a full investigation when no action was taken, she contacted Ms. Ostermann, the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Director for Nassau County. In their meeting, Ms. Williams was advised that there was nothing that could be done and that "they didn't offer any sensitivity training." In addition, Ms. Ostermann failed to conduct a meaningful investigation with an eye toward determining who had committed this outrageous act.

After filing her initial complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the New York State Division of Human Rights (NYSDHR), Ms. Williams alleged that she was subjected to increased hostility from her co-workers following this incident. She was once yelled at by a fellow officer in an aggressive tone, which made her so afraid that she had to leave work. She felt that this action was a direct response to her expressing concerns of racism towards herself and her fellow African-American co-workers and her filing a complaint about the same.

On February 6, 2015, Ms. Williams — who had been working on a day shift from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., which had been awarded to her as an accommodation to allow her to care for her daughter who suffers from seizures — was told she would now have to work the night shift, starting at 1 a.m. Three days later, she submitted a written request to work a day shift and to be moved to a different department. She was ultimately reassigned to the Security Platoon Department, working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week and from 4 p.m. to midnight the following week. Ms. Williams claimed she was reassigned to an overnight shift every other week as a form of retaliation for her reporting the etchings and her co-workers’ words and actions regarding the etchings and in an effort to get her to resign from her position.

According to its written policy, the Nassau County Corrections Department encourages the reporting of all perceived incidents of discrimination and is supposed to investigate all such reports. In this case, the department failed to follow its own policy. Ms. Williams followed procedure in the necessary time period by reporting the incident to the proper channels. The EEO failed to investigate her claim and to interview both Ms. Williams and her witnesses. The NYSDHR directed the County to make the necessary people available to interview, but the County failed to produce them throughout the investigation.

On May 28, 2015, Leon C. Dimaya, the NYSDHR’s Acting Director, reviewed the evidence and determined that Probable Cause existed that the Nassau County Corrections Department engaged in and/or is engaging in unlawful discriminatory practices. He also recommended the matter proceed forward. The EEOC issued a right to sue letter on September 17, 2015, noting the Plaintiff wished to pursue the matter in U.S. District Court.

The Defendants sought to dismiss claims of retaliation and a hostile work environment, but, on March 30, 2017, Judge Leonard D. Wexler ruled that Ms. Williams’ case would not be dismissed. The Court found that, based on the pleadings at this point, the Defendants knew of Ms. Williams’ family situation, which prevented her from taking a night shift and the time frame from the Plaintiff’s initial comments on the carvings in the doorway to the filing of the NYSDHR complaint to her reassignment — less than five months (three months between the NYSDHR filing and the reassignment) — was sufficient enough to constitute a temporal link to the alleged retaliatory action. The Court also ruled that Ms. Williams would be allowed to prove that the hostile work environment went beyond the racist symbols carved in the doorway.

Defendants Nassau County, the Nassau County Correctional Center and Nassau County Sheriff’s Department sought to dismiss a Monell (municipal liability) claim, which alleged that the Defendants failed to investigate or correct the conduct of Ms. Williams’ co-workers and superiors and failed to follow their own rules and procedures; that motion was also denied.

The Court, in its decision, found sufficient information in the pleadings for the case to proceed to full-blown discovery. The County of Nassau must now face depositions and disclosure of documents, among other actions.

To read the decision, click here.


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