PORT ANGELES — Four people claiming age and disability discrimination in the workplace have filed a claim seeking an estimated $1 million in damages each from the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The four — two former employees in the office, one present employee and the daughter of a former employee who died in 2007 — filed a claim with the county Auditor’s Office on Sept. 28, said attorney Richard Creatura of the Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell, Malanca, Peterson and Daheim LLP law firm in Tacoma.
The claimants are Carol Case, deputy prosecuting attorney; Elain Sundt, former office administrator; Kathy Nielsen, former deputy prosecuting attorney; Hollie Hutton, who is representing Robin Porter, a former legal assistant who died last year.
Hutton is Porter’s daughter.
The claimants allege that county Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly and Mark Nichols, chief deputy prosecuting attorney, as well as other staff, discriminated against them based on their “age and/or disability,” beginning in 2006.
The claim for damages document also says that the claimants “have been treated in a hostile, demeaning and condescending manner” due to their age and/or disability, which created a hostile working environment.
Damages are estimated at $1 million each, the claim says.
‘No harassment’
The county hired an outside investigator after the allegations were first aired, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a written statement.
The investigator, who was not identified, “found no harassment, hostile work environment or discrimination,” the statement said.
Nichols had no further comment on Wednesday, and said that the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has a policy against “discussing matters of focus of pending litigation.”
The claim can’t be filed with Clallam County Superior Court until 60 days after it was filed with the Auditor’s Office, Creatura said.
Stephanie Bloomfield of the Tacoma law office also is representing the claimants.
Creatura said the claimants are all over 40 years of age, which put them under the protection of state laws against age discrimination.
He wouldn’t comment on who is claiming discrimination based on disability or what the disability is.
Younger staff
Creatura said the claimants allege that Kelly and Nichols both said that the office needed a younger and more energetic staff, and reassigned older employees into positions that were “untenable.”
“They found ways to discriminate and harass those that had been in the [Prosecuting Attorney’s Office] for a number of years,” he said.
Creatura said a couple of the claimants say they have had adverse health and mental affects from the alleged mistreatment.
