The lawsuit alleges that a Mt. Morris Township employee was subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation after reporting it

FLINT, MI – A Shiawassee County woman is suing Mt. Morris Township and its police department, claiming she was sexually harassed during her employment there and that she was retaliated against when she reported it.

The lawsuit was filed April 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Flint by Eric Stempien on behalf of the plaintiff, a former employee of the Mt. Morris Township Police Department.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff began her employment with Mt. Morris Township in 2000 and was sexually harassed by co-workers and supervisors beginning around 2018.

The lawsuit alleges that in approximately 2019, a police officer began hugging the plaintiff and ended each hug with an inappropriate touch. In one incident detailed in the lawsuit, the officer allegedly exposed himself to the plaintiff.

In another case, he allegedly asked the plaintiff to meet him in a back room, where he grabbed her hand and “placed it on his groin and penis.”

The plaintiff received a text message from a male police officer in 2019 that included a photo of his penis, the lawsuit says. Attached to the message was text that read: “For your eyes only.”

According to the lawsuit, a high-ranking police officer is said to have sent pornographic material to the plaintiff via Facebook Messenger in 2020.

Other alleged incidents referenced in the lawsuit include sexual comments made to the plaintiff while she was eating a banana and a high-ranking official hitting the plaintiff on the buttocks with a ruler before “laughing into his office.” “ran.

According to the lawsuit, the alleged retaliation began around May 2021 when an officer the plaintiff had accused of sexual harassment complained to officers about her. No action was taken.

After speaking with a supervisor, the lawsuit alleged that the plaintiff’s claims were not listened to.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff would go on vacation in June 2021 due to, among other things, depression. After returning to work, she began to observe more harassing behavior.

The plaintiff filed a discrimination lawsuit with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in late 2022. A formal complaint to the community followed, after which she claimed she had been ordered to take a drug test by her police boss.

When the tests came back negative, the plaintiff was later placed on leave and her insurance was canceled. The lawsuit alleges that, as a retiree, she would be offered health care if she voluntarily retired from the police force.

The plaintiff was fired in January 2023 for making a “’false’ allegation of sexual harassment,” the lawsuit says.

Mt. Morris Township Police Chief Michael Veach declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A message left for Mt. Morris Township Supervisor Jolena Sims was not returned. The lawyers did not respond to messages seeking comment.