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watchdog66
F L I N T O I D
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Former employees sue Forsyth elections board, alleging harassment, legal violations
By: Michael Hewlett , Wesley Young
Published: October 14, 2011
The Forsyth County Board of Elections ignored allegations that Elections Director Rob Coffman sexually harassed employees and allowed election law violations, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by three former elections employees.
Pamela Johnson, Terry Cox and Deena Head filed the lawsuit in Forsyth Superior Court. They allege that the elections board was negligent in hiring Coffman in 2006 and refused to fire him after allegations about sexual harassment and other misconduct arose.
The plaintiffs accuse Coffman of calling one employee a "crack ho," and of saying of another that she "runs her mouth too much and she's too fat." The suit accuses him of calling an employee a "dyke" in front of co-workers and asking aloud if a teenage girl had won a costume contest by dressing "like a prostitute."
The accusations of inappropriate remarks raised by the lawsuit were aired extensively in public earlier this year — along with charges that Coffman had allowed election-law violations on his watch. What's different is that the three employees are bringing their complaints before the court and asking for financial compensation.
The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and compensatory damages of at least $50,000 as well as punitive damages in an amount that the court sees fit.
Johnson, Cox and Head filed the lawsuit against Forsyth County, the Forsyth County Board of Elections and Coffman.
Coffman declined to comment Thursday. Also declining comment were County Manager Dudley Watts and County Attorney Davida Martin. Linda Sutton, chairwoman of the elections board, did not return a message seeking comment.
Jerry Jordan, who was on the three-member elections board during the controversy, called the suit "a big bunch of garbage."
"People made allegations and that stuff was addressed back when it happened," Jordan said. "All that stuff was reviewed and investigated by the state and county boards of elections. It is old, old, old news."
James Hairston, a Raleigh attorney representing Johnson, Cox and Head, said Thursday that he looks forward to his clients presenting their claims in court.
"I genuinely believe, after talking to them, that the claims are meritorious, and that something needs to be done about the director and his conduct toward his employees," he said.
Coffman has acknowledged that a comment he made was "completely in the wrong" in a 2008 incident involving Head. He said it had occurred at a time when his "sense of humor had gone over the line."
Coffman received counseling at the time of that complaint and has denied that he has made inappropriate comments since then.
The county elections board cleared Coffman of any election-law violations in February. Coffman kept his job after the elections board discussed the allegations of personnel misconduct in closed session.
When Coffman was hired as elections director in 2006, the lawsuit said, he had been sued for sexual harassment in Michigan, where he had previously lived and worked. In 1995 Coffman settled the suit, in which he and two other employees of a nonprofit group were accused of sexual harassment.
As elections director in Forsyth, Coffman made a number of derogatory comments about employees' race and gender, the lawsuit said.
"Defendant Coffman also routinely made insulting, derogatory or inappropriate comments about members of the public that visited the Forsyth County Board of Elections office," the lawsuit said.
Johnson, who started at the board of elections in 2001, alleges that Coffman called her a "dyke," a derogatory term for a lesbian, after she got her hair cut in June 2007.
According to the suit, Johnson reported Coffman to county officials for improperly using a county credit card, hiring a consultant without bidding the position and allowing election-law violations. In the past, the plaintiffs have said Coffman allowed illegal voter registration and miscounting of absentee ballots.
Johnson said that when she was fired in 2009 she was never told she could appeal the dismissal. That was wrongful termination, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that when Johnson's ex-husband, Winston-Salem Journal reporter Richard Craver, was speaking with Coffman in October 2008, Coffman told him that he "knew why he divorced her."
When asked Thursday about the allegation, Craver said Coffman made the remark during a telephone interview about an elections issue.
"Before I could begin the interview, Coffman made a comment about how he understood why I divorced my wife," Craver said. "I told him it was an inappropriate comment and went on with the interview."
Cox alleges in the lawsuit that Coffman created a hostile work environment and continuously used profanity. Coffman also made derogatory comments about Cox's age and visual disability, the lawsuit said.
Cox says in the lawsuit that he took early retirement in November 2009 based on his doctor's advice and his mental and physical health.
Head, who says she worked as a temporary seasonal employee for the 2008 elections, said Coffman introduced her to an outside consultant as "the local crack ho" and said she was "on loan to us from the jail."
mhewlett@wsjournal.com (336) 727-7326 wyoung@wsjournal.com (336) 727-7369
*****You can see the actual complaint at the Winston-Salem Journal's website.
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Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:15 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Coffman, Greg Eason and Jackie Foster were sued for similar complaints when they were at Career alliance. Coffman was reprimanded for sexual harassment then. That was before he went to Mike carr's elections bureau. |
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Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:12 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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When Jaime Curtis first ran for Burton Council, he filed a waiver although he spent an estimated $20,000 or more on mailing and other election related materials. When the complaint was filed with Mike Carr's office, Coffman bragged to the complaintiffs that he had told Curtis how to deal with it. Coffman said if Curtis did not respond the issue was dead and he did nothing.
Coffman bragged about being "Burton trailer trash" and was friends with many involved in the Rizzo deal. |
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Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:49 am |
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