A Mount Prospect fire lieutenant is suing the village and several high-ranking fire department officials, alleging he was passed over for promotion and retaliated against for complaining of a "hostile, vulgar, and sexually offensive work culture" within the department.
The federal lawsuit by Lt. Steven Edwards claims members of the department engage in graphic conversations about sexual performance and sexual violence and view pornography in the workplace.
Along with the village, the named defendants include fire Chief John Dolan, former Chief Brian Lambel, Batallion Chief Aaron Grandgeorge and Heidi Neu, the village's human resources director.
Village Manager Michael Cassaday declined to comment on the lawsuit Monday.
The lawsuit seeks undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages for Edwards, as well as a court order stating the village must provide equal employment opportunities and prevent discrimination and retaliation in the workplace.
Edwards joined the fire department in 1997 and over his 24 years received stellar evaluations, including one characterizing his leadership as "shaping the future of the department," the suit states. Lambel told Edwards that he intended to promote him to battalion chief as soon as the position became available, according to the suit.
Over time, the suit alleges, Edwards became increasingly aware of the "blatant sexism" in the department, which as of 2020 had 72 sworn firefighters, all of them men. The suit claims the behavior included ranking female staff members on their potential as sexual partners, discussing sex acts and derogatory comments about female patients.
According to the suit, Edwards brought his complaints to Lambel and the village's human resources department starting in January 2020. A later investigation found misconduct by a battalion chief, who was suspended for 24 as a result, according to the lawsuit.
A week after he complained, the suit states, Edward received the first negative performance evaluation of his career from Grandgeorge.
Over the following two years, the suit alleges, Edwards was passed over for promotion to battalion chief, stripped of his training duties, removed from his preferred shift and station, and isolated within the department. In 2021, the suit states, he was suspended for one day after hitting a station garage with a truck, as others had done but gone unpunished.
And as recently as Aug. 2, the suit states, the village threatened to fire him as part of an investigation into his use of sick days. The threat, according to the suit, came shortly after state and federal authorities granted him the right to sue the village over his claims.
A pretrial status hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 24 before U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman.
"vulgar" - Google News
August 30, 2022 at 03:14AM
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Mount Prospect fire lieutenant sues village, alleging 'hostile, vulgar' work culture - Daily Herald
"vulgar" - Google News
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