Caltrans sues former supervisor who sexually harassed employee and demands damages

The California Department of Transportation filed a lawsuit this week against a former supervisor, demanding financial compensation from him after a jury in Sacramento found that he sexually harassed another state employee of the agency.

A judge in Sacramento ordered Caltrans and former supervisor Steven Medina to pay Sarah Schimpf and her legal team a total of $850,000 in damages and legal fees last year.

The transit authority asked the Sacramento Superior Court of California to order Medina to pay part of the damages and attorney fees. Caltrans paid Schimpf $275,000 and her legal team $575,000. Caltrans is requiring Medina to reimburse the authority for part of that amount.

Medina did not appear at the hearing and was not represented by an attorney.

Schimpf filed her lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court in October 2020, claiming Medina sexually harassed her for years. She said she reported Medina to the agency multiple times and Caltrans failed to prevent the harassment, as required by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Caltrans declined to respond to a list of questions, citing pending litigation. Medina could not be reached for comment.

Medina was a maintenance supervisor at Caltrans at the time Schimpf filed the lawsuit, the filing shows. Schimpf was an employee of the agency. Court records do not indicate that Medina was her supervisor.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Schimpf currently works as an office technician at Caltrans. However, she did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Schimpf’s complaint, Schimpf and Medina had a consensual sexual relationship for three months in 2018. In July of that year, she informed Medina that she no longer wanted to continue the relationship and told him that his sexual conduct was unwelcome.

From 2018 to 2020, Medina continued to harass Schimpf by sending her unsolicited messages through his Caltrans phone and email address, parking his Caltrans vehicle in front of Schimpf’s home and instructing other agency employees to mistreat her, the complaint states.

Schimpf informed Caltrans management of the harassment in December 2019. The following month, she was told an investigation was not warranted, her complaint states.

Months later, she went back to management and presented them with evidence that Medina had referenced Schimpf in his public calendar.

In April 2020, the state agency opened an investigation into Schimpf’s discrimination complaint, but a Caltrans manager later told her that Medina’s harassment was a “strictly private matter” and the agency would not take any action to stop the harassment, court records show.

In April 2023, a jury in Sacramento found that Medina had severely and extensively harassed Schimpf. The jury also concluded that the state agency knew about the harassment and failed to take appropriate action to stop it.

Superior Court Judge Jill Talley ordered Caltrans and Medina to pay Schimpf $275,000 in damages. The Department of Transportation had already compensated Schimpf last October. Caltrans paid an additional $575,000 in legal fees. Schimpf’s attorney, Nicholas Scardigli, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Caltrans, the agency’s complaint against Medina stated that the former employee did not respond to the agency’s demand that he share in the damages.

Caltrans stated in court documents that Medina’s misconduct forced the agency to pay Schimpf’s attorney fees, court costs, and expenses.

Caltrans asked a judge to review the case and determine the proportionate amount owed by Medina and five other unnamed defendants who Caltrans says are partly responsible for the continued harassment of Schimpf.