Belleville officer files sex discrimination lawsuit against chief, police board
A female Belleville police sergeant has filed a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit alleging that she has not been promoted because of her gender.
Sgt. Kimberly Fulkerson’s attorneys filed the suit in federal court against Police Chief Bill Clay, the city’s Board of Fire and Police Commissioners and the city.
Clay said he could not comment on pending litigation. City Attorney Garrett Hoerner could not be reached for comment.
Neither Fulkerson nor MaryAnne Quill, the St. Louis lawyer who signed the lawsuit, could be reached for comment about the 26-page complaint filed on Nov. 25 in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Illinois in East St. Louis.
“Since the beginning of her employment, (Fulkerson) has been subjected to sexual discrimination, harassment, and inappropriate behavior, caused by ongoing discriminatory culture, customs, policies, practices and procedures” of the defendants, the lawsuit alleges.
Fulkerson was hired in 1994 and was named the city’s first female sergeant in 2007, according to the suit. Her requests to the court include payment for lost wages and benefits, front wages, emotional distress damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees and costs but the lawsuit didn’t ask for a specific amount from the city.
Allegations in the lawsuit include:
▪ Fulkerson has been “denied an equal opportunity to serve on specialized units and discouraged her from participation in social and community-oriented activities because of her gender.”
▪ Fulkerson continually has been denied promotion in rank even though she was qualified, because of her gender.
▪ The defendants “created discriminatory qualification procedures preventing female officers from qualifying and ranking high enough on the eligibility list for promotions to advance their careers.”
▪ The defendants have “actively created opportunities for promotion and bent policy and procedure to promote lesser-qualified male officers instead.”
Fulkerson’s lawsuit cites allegations ranging from throughout her career, with some occurring before Clay was named chief in 2007 and others after that.
In 1994, shortly after she was hired, Fulkerson “faced overt sexual harassment from her male colleagues and supervisors. This harassment included harassing comments, touching, nit-picking Plaintiff’s performance, and treating Plaintiff differently than male peers.”
Former Police Chief Dave Brauer told Fulkerson in 1994 that she wasn’t allowed to play in the Police Department’s softball tournament or attend police functions, such as the bowling tournaments or Policeman’s Ball, the complaint states. He told Fulkerson that she couldn’t attend the events because he did not want to “hear about it” from the other police officers’ wives, according to the suit. Brauer is not a defendant in the lawsuit and he could not be reached for c,omment.
The lawsuit states male officers continued to ask her out and pressure her to go on dates after she declined their advances.
No officers were disciplined when rumors circulated that Fulkerson would perform oral sex on male officers in the bathroom during a police officer’s banquet, according to the suit.
Clay has only appointed male employees to the rank of “master sergeant” and has never promoted Fulkerson to master sergeant, even though she is the most senior sergeant in the department and is qualified for the role, according to the lawsuit.
Fulkerson passed the promotional test qualifying her to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 2009 but she was not promoted, according to the lawsuit.
The test was changed in 2012 and she did not qualify in 2012 or 2016 to become a lieutenant. However, in 2018 she passed the test but has not been promoted to lieutenant, the suit states.
The lawsuit states that Fulkerson was the only female on the eligibility list to be a lieutenant and that she was placed last on this list despite having the most seniority of all the applicants.
Fulkerson’s suit says she had the same number of educational points as two men on the list and that the police board awarded “more points during the oral interview to the other male officer applicants, which placed them higher on the list.”
All of the male officers on the list were promoted except for one who retired, according to the lawsuit.
Complaints filed
Fulkerson filed an internal complaint regarding a hostile work environment caused by sex discrimination but it was dismissed in March 2019, according to the lawsuit.
In July 2019, Fulkerson received a “very hostile and threatening letter” from Capt. Mark Heffernan, according to the suit. The letter accused Fulkerson of having a conversation with an unnamed subordinate officer regarding her complaints about not being promoted and it “falsely accused” her of threatening the administration at the Belleville Police Department, the suit states. Heffernan, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment on pending litigation.
In September 2019, Fulkerson filed a charge against the city with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging sex discrimination and retaliation and she received a right to sue letter from the commission on Aug. 28, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that the defendants have retaliated against Fulkerson by denying her promotions for her “opposition to the ongoing discriminatory culture” at the department, for regularly complaining to her superior officers regarding the department and for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Quill signed the lawsuit but two other lawyers with the St. Louis law firm of Kennedy Hunt, Thomas E. Kennedy III and Sarah Jane Hunt, are listed below Quill’s signature.
Sex harassment lawsuit
Earlier this year, a federal lawsuit was filed for a former police department secretary who alleged she was sexually harassed and that leaders knew of the alleged misconduct and failed to correct it.
This lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court in East St. Louis. It was filed by Quill, who signed Fulkerson’s complaint.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Justine Eisemann names John Moody, a former captain in the police department, Clay and the city as defendants.
Clay and the city filed an answer asking the court to rule in their favor in part because Eisemann’s complaint is barred because she “failed to exhaust administrative remedies for all of her claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and/or the Illinois Department of Human Rights under Illinois law.”
Clay is being represented by the Belleville law firm of Becker, Hoerner & Ysursa.
Moody also filed an answer asking the court to rule in his favor in part because the “alleged damages were the direct result of Plaintiff’s failure to mitigate those damages.”
He is being represented by the Belleville law firm of Weilmuenster, Keck & Brown.
