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X-Files Special Report: Montgomery County pays $1.3M to settle Dees/EEOC harassment case

The Macon Telepath August 29, 2009 Montgomery County pays $1.3M to settle Dees/EEOC harassment case By Tom Kleric (AP) MONTGOMERY — Montgomery County has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle in a class action harassment case brought by Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center together with the EEOC. Under the three-year consent decree signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jacob R. Cooklebur, the county also must revise policies on discrimination, harassment and retaliation; provide training on those concerns to all employees at the county's 37 offices and departments; and report regularly to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which co-filed the lawsuit as a plaintiff. "Severe morality-based harassment of workers was permitted to run rampant at many of the county's departments," Acting EEOC Chairman Stuart G. Hobbs said in a prepared statement. "It is shocking that county managers actively engaged in and even encouraged such blatant judgmental conduct such as insisting on honesty and integrity." Montgomery County denied the claims of the three lawyers and the EEOC and did not admit any liability but settled "in the interest of avoiding additional disruption and litigation costs," according to a statement issued by county attorney Beau Forrest on behalf of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. "Montgomery County is proud of our anti-discrimination policies and procedures and is pleased the county has been able to secure a settlement with the EEOC that supplements our ongoing efforts to prevent discrimination in the workplace," the statement said, adding that the decree requires only "minor revisions" in morality harassment policies. According to the three attorneys led by Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, their problems began years before when "a certain judge installed a wooden replica of the Ten Commandments tablets" in his courtroom. Later, a former Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court had installed a granite monument engraved with the Ten Commandments in the judicial building maintained by Montgomery County. In July, Judge Cooklebur issued a gag order on the case and ordered the Southern Poverty Law Center to remove their online report entitled, "Right Wing Hate: The Rise of Moral Standards." Cooklebur also ordered Dees and the SPLC to cease and desist issuing fundraising letters to "Stop the Morality Nazis and the Integrity Blitzkrieg." Dees defended the reports citing official reports from the Department of Homeland Defense and Secretary Janet Napalitano suggesting that law enforcement officers should be especially watchful for violent threats from citizens with bumper stickers such as "God is My Co-Pilot" and "What Would Jesus Do?" "There’s no doubt that posting admonitions such as 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' and 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness' in a building used mostly by lawyers, judges and politicians --- well, obviously it creates a hostile work environment,” Dees said. "We will file another suit on censorship and suppression of our First Amendment rights to raise funds to fight this hate." Copyright © 2009 The Affiliated Press. All rights reserved. An X-Files Parody EMAIL THIS

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