BOLI finds for DA employees

Published 4:00 am Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries has found substantial evidence to support allegations that Deschutes County District Attorney Patrick Flaherty discriminated against investigator Sharon Sweet and trial assistant Nicole Jenson.

Sweet and Jenson filed civil rights complaints with the bureau last year, in which they alleged that Flaherty discriminated against them based on gender, age, as whistle-blowers and, in Jenson’s case, her family connection to another employee.

Most Popular

The bureau made its decision Thursday.

The state agency, which enforces labor and civil rights laws, is now in a phase known as conciliation with the District Attorney’s Office, said BOLI communications director Charlie Burr on Monday.

“It’s basically a 90-day period in which we will try to settle the complaint and eliminate the effects of unlawful practices,” Burr said. “If that cannot be reached, then it formally becomes a contested case.”

At that point, BOLI would take on the role of prosecutor and file formal charges against Flaherty, Burr said. An administrative law judge would hear the cases.

Sweet and Jenson declined to comment on Monday, and Flaherty did not return calls for comment. Keith Bauer, a lawyer hired by the state to represent Flaherty in the BOLI cases, said the recent BOLI decisions were only preliminary findings.

“The District Attorney’s office has always looked forward to trying this case, where the parties are placed under oath and the rules of evidence will apply,” Bauer said. “It’s a different setting than in the more informal investigation that is conducted by the agency in advance.”

Flaherty laid off Sweet in October 2011, and wrote in letters to Sweet and Deschutes County that he was eliminating her job immediately due to previously discussed concerns about the position and cost increases for information technology. Emails between Flaherty and former County Administrator Dave Kanner suggested Flaherty wanted to scale back or eliminate Sweet’s job soon after he took office in January 2011. Sweet worked part-time for the District Attorney’s Office and part-time for Deschutes County, investigating personnel issues and other matters.

In a BOLI complaint filed in January 2012, Sweet alleged that Flaherty discriminated against her based on her gender and age and because she was a whistle-blower. Sweet wrote that Flaherty asked her when she planned to retire, repeatedly questioned her loyalty and credibility, and hired two male part-time investigators to supervise Sweet, who worked for the District Attorney’s Office for more than five years. Sweet also claimed Flaherty called her a spy and retaliated against her for raising concerns about hiring practices in the office.

It was unclear Monday whether BOLI found evidence of all of these allegations. Although BOLI completed its investigation, “the case is still open” and the agency cannot release the investigation file, Burr said.

In a BOLI complaint filed in February 2012, Nicole Jenson alleged the District Attorney’s Office discriminated against her based on her gender and the fact that she is the daughter of another woman who worked in the office when Flaherty became District Attorney. Jenson also wrote that the District Attorney’s Office retaliated against her for complaining that a supervisor asked her to search the state Law Enforcement Data System for Flaherty’s personal use.

In 2011, employees in the District Attorney’s Office searched the database for information on defense attorney Michael Romano and the owners of cars parked in the District Attorney’s parking lot. An investigation by the Oregon State Police found these searches were not a misuse of the state database. In a letter to Jenson on Thursday, a BOLI investigator wrote that substantial evidence showed the District Attorney’s Office discriminated against Jenson based on her gender and retaliated against her for whistle-blowing.

After Flaherty terminated Sweet’s job as an investigator, the county hired her as a full-time employee. Sweet continues to work for Deschutes County, although her job was scaled back from full-time to part-time in December, Deputy County Administrator Erik Kropp wrote in an email Monday. Jenson continues to work as a trial assistant in the District Attorney’s Office.

Marketplace