A former Russellville police officer has filed a second lawsuit against the City of Russellville, this time alleging retaliation, discriminatory discharge, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, gender discrimination and violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.A former Russellville police officer has filed a second lawsuit against the City of Russellville, this time alleging retaliation, discriminatory discharge, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, gender discrimination and violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.Chelsea Gentry filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on July 4, 2017. The multi-count complaint follows an earlier lawsuit, still pending in federal court, that alleged gender discrimination on the part of the City of Russellville based on allegations that Gentry, who was promoted and subsequently demoted from the position of sergeant, was discriminated against because she was a female and subjected to different standards as a sergeant because of her gender.Gentry's attorney, Patricia A. Gill of Birmingham, now represents Gentry in both lawsuits and has filed a motion to consolidate the cases.The 27-page complaint maintains that the City of Russellville, through its police department, created a hostile work environment that became “so intolerable that a reasonable person in her position would have felt compelled to resign.” (Page 21, Gentry complaint).Gentry's claim that the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act revolves around her assertion that while she was breast feeding her newborn baby after returning to work after his birth, the city did not provide “a reasonable break time for her to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child's birth,” (Page 22, Gentry complaint) and “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.” (Page 22, Gentry complaint).Russellville City Attorney Danny McDowell, when reached for comment last week, issued a brief statement:“Our policy remains that we will not comment on pending litigation, however, I can state affirmatively we continue to feel very confident about the city's position in these legal proceedings,” McDowell said.Gentry filed two separate charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission related to her employment with the City of Russellville. The first was filed on March 24, 2016, with a second complaint filed April 27, 2017. In Gentry's second complaint, she maintains she was “constructively discharged in retaliation for opposing discriminatory conduct in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.”In that charge of discrimination, Gentry alleged the following:“I am a former female employee of Russellville Police Department. I have previously filed charges of discrimination against the City of Russellville, and am currently involved in litigation with the City. On or about February 24, 2017, a member of the Russellville City Council asked me to request a meeting with the council to discuss my workplace issues. On or about March 6, 2017, I went to a City Council meeting and discussed what I perceive to be ongoing discriminatory conduct by my superiors in the police department. On March 8, 2017 I was called into the station on my day off and informed to bring all police department equipment with me. At that time I was given the choice to resign or be terminated. I wrote a letter of resignation while at this meeting.”After an investigation, the EEOC issued a “Dismissal and Notice of Rights,” as it did following Gentry's first complaint, indicating that “based upon its investigation, the EEOC is unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statutes. This does not certify that the respondent is in compliance with the statutes. No finding is made as to any other issues that might be construed as having been raised by this charge.”Essentially, the EEOC once again closed its file on the matter after being unable to find evidence that statutes were violated. This finding does not prevent Gentry from filing a lawsuit, which she did again last month.The City of Russellville, through the law firm of Lanier, Ford, Shaver & Payne, P.C., of Huntsville, filed an answer denying each allegation of Gentry's complaint, including the specific affirmative defense that “Plaintiff's gender was not a substantial or motivating factor for any of the city's employment actions, practices or decisions.”In her initial lawsuit, Gentry alleges she was told by a fellow sergeant that “women have no place in law enforcement.” Additionally, she claims she was subjected to a Field Training program for new sergeants that didn't exist before her promotion, and a claim she was not provided with a computer program designed for supervisors to view their officers' locations through GPS.In the new lawsuit, Gentry asserts her husband, Mickey Gentry, a city employee in the Russellville Fire Department, spoke with Mayor David Grissom about the discrimination and harassment his wife was enduring, and that a police captain told Gentry he needed to keep his mouth shut, removed him from the RPD Reserve Officer program and told him he was not welcome on police department premises unless he had official business.Gentry's complaint further alleges she was “followed and verbally harassed” by a sergeant within the department and that while she was pregnant she was not allowed to use sick leave donated to her by other employees.The first lawsuit is pending in the court of United States District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala and is set for a status conference in January of 2018. No trial date has been set and no decision has come from the court on Gentry's motion to consolidate the two cases.
