A woman who says she was sexually assaulted and harassed by a senior staff member while working for the Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts has filed a lawsuit against the clerk and county, accusing them of protecting and enabling a sexual predator.
The woman, whose complaint was filed July 3 in the federal trial court in Atlanta, claimed that clerk Ché Alexander and the county allowed a chief deputy clerk to resign in June with his pension and other job benefits, shortly after being notified that the lawsuit alleging his conduct would be filed.
Alexander and the county knew that the senior male employee had harassed female colleagues for years while continuing to employ him, the lawsuit alleges. It claims that the man’s harassment of the plaintiff began a few months after she was hired in March 2022 to work in Alexander’s office, where the man had a supervisory role, and continued through 2023. The plaintiff was a court associate in the clerk’s office, records show.
The male employee allegedly sent sexually explicit pictures to the plaintiff and asked her to do the same, according to the lawsuit. Also, the male employee often touched her at work, whispered vulgar and intimidating things to her, repeatedly requested sex from her, and asked her to stay with him in a hotel room that he had booked for a work Christmas party, the lawsuit states.
“In one traumatic incident, (the male employee) sexually assaulted (the plaintiff) in his office, pushing (the plaintiff) over his desk and forcing intercourse with her, despite (the plaintiff) telling him ‘no’ and clearly not consenting,” the complaint states. “On numerous occasions, (the plaintiff) denied the (male employee’s) sexual advances, including refusing to perform oral sex on him in his office.”
Alexander confirmed that the male employee has resigned. She said Fulton County doesn’t comment on pending legal matters. Tanya Miller, an attorney for the male employee, who is not a defendant in the case, said the lawsuit is frivolous and “full of lies.”
“We have complete confidence in the legal process and expect to be fully vindicated in a court of law,” Miller said.
The county told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a February 2024 letter that it investigated the plaintiff’s claims and found no evidence to support them. In the letter, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Open Records Act, the county said the plaintiff declined to participate in an internal investigation or file a formal complaint against the male employee with the county’s department of diversity and civil rights compliance.
“The clerk’s office took reasonable care to prevent and correct the alleged harassment, and (the plaintiff) unreasonably failed to take advantage of preventive measures available to her,” the county said in the letter. “(The plaintiff) declined to provide any additional information in support of her allegations, and none was discovered.”
Records sent by the county to the EEOC show the plaintiff told the male employee in a July 2023 text message exchange that he was “looking handsome.” The male employee replied “thanks.” In June 2023 text messages, the male employee cautioned the plaintiff about her temper at work, saying “when you get in your mood, you’re intolerable” and “you know when you get on 10, you stay there for a while.”
The plaintiff responded “believe me you have not seen me at a 10.. But I’ve realized I need to go and leave,” the records show. In the same exchange, the plaintiff thanked the male employee and said “I do appreciate you listening to me and giving constructive criticism.”
A.J. Mitchell, an attorney for the plaintiff, declined to answer questions about the case. He said the male employee’s resignation is “only the first of many steps needed” to protect female staff in Alexander’s office and that those who “enabled this behavior” must be held responsible.
The Atlanta Police Department said it had no incident reports involving the male employee. A spokesperson for the Fulton County Police Department did not respond to an inquiry about incident reports involving him.
In response to an Open Records Act request, the county said its human resources department has no complaints against the male employee.
The lawsuit alleges that when the plaintiff complained about the male employee’s conduct to a human resources worker, she was told that the male employee would make her look like an “angry Black woman.” At that time, the plaintiff allegedly was told by the HR worker that there had been similar complaints about the male employee from other female staff members, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that no action was taken and that the sexual harassment continued.
The plaintiff’s complaint doesn’t specify what evidence she presented to the HR worker to support her claims. It alleges that the plaintiff “was essentially told she would need more evidence to do anything about it, because of (the male employee’s) job position and stature.”
“Instead of protecting (the plaintiff) and other female employees, (Fulton County and Alexander) protected and enabled a sexual predator,” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff claims that after she reported the male employee’s alleged conduct, she was disciplined for tardiness that other workers got away with and transferred to “a less-desirable work location approximately 30-45 minutes away.”
County records provided to the EEOC show the plaintiff received a written warning for attendance violations in April 2023, before the male employee was her supervisor. The plaintiff’s temporary relocation in July 2023 to a court records warehouse was in response to the county sheriff’s request to temporarily reduce staff at the courthouse due to safety concerns tied to the indictment of former President Donald Trump, county records show. The county told the EEOC it then gave the plaintiff a choice of three locations in the courthouse where she would be separated from the male employee.
The lawsuit also alleges that the male employee continued to intimidate and traumatize the plaintiff after she complained about his conduct to Alexander, the clerk’s human resources director and the EEOC in August 2023. The male employee showed up at the plaintiff’s new work location and walked near her for no apparent reason, went to her church and parked outside her children’s day care, where he watched the day care door and her parked car, according to the complaint.
In a letter to the county that was provided to the EEOC, the male employee said the plaintiff’s claims are ridiculous and that her “temper and inability to co-exist with some of her colleagues is the reoccurring theme.” He said the plaintiff appeared to have a personal issue with him because he tried to calm her down when she got “extremely loud and belligerent” in front of a customer.
The plaintiff also claimed in her lawsuit that she was passed over for a promotion in favor of less experienced male colleagues whom she had trained and who were quickly promoted by the man who had assaulted her.
Her claims against Fulton County and Alexander include sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Civil Rights Act. She seeks unspecified compensation, damages and attorney fees.
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