A federal judge threw out a lawsuit last week against the director of the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management, saying a former employee's harassment and retaliation allegations weren't severe enough to pursue under federal law.
Julie Woodward complained in the suit that director Shelia Bellott made inappropriate and harassing remarks on May 23, 2017, when she described sexual encounters with her new boyfriend to Woodward in earshot of several co-workers. Woodward said she asked Bellott to stop, but Bellott continued to "smell her hands in a sexual manner" and follow Woodward around the office.
Woodward also alleged that for several weeks after she complained to the county and filed suit, until she quit to work at another job, Bellott retaliated against her and subjected her to a hostile work environment by making her keep a detailed activity log documenting all her activities, including phone calls and bathroom breaks.
In granting the county's motion for summary judgment, a ruling based solely on legal findings, U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. said that Bellott's discussion of her past and anticipated sexual encounters, and her crude language used along with gesticulations, "were unprofessional, obscene and had no place in the workplace."
But he said the "isolated incident" of May 23, 2017, wasn't egregious enough to sue over. He noted that Woodward and Bellott had been friends who bought each other gifts, attended and participated in each other's weddings, went to dinner and helped each other with household projects. He said Woodward never told Bellott before that date that the details of Bellott's sex life were unwelcome, and indisputably discussed her own sexual experiences with Bellott.
As to the retaliation claim, Moody cited a 2011 ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said, "Minor changes in duties or working conditions, even unpalatable or unwelcome ones, which cause no materially significant disadvantage, do not rise to the level of an adverse employment action."
Another former employee, Mary Johnson, was initially a second plaintiff in the lawsuit, but later dropped out.
The county attorney, David Hogue, first investigated employees' complaints that Bellott sometimes graphically discussed her sex life at work, and recommended that County Judge Jim Baker fire her. Cody Hiland, then a prosecuting attorney for the county, also investigated the allegations for the Quorum Court and recommended termination.
Bellott wasn't fired, but she was counseled, sent home for three days and was temporarily moved to a separate building across town until Woodward resigned.
Hiland is now the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Metro on 10/22/2019