Man accuses WVU of racism

MORGANTOWN - A Monongalia County man says he was harassed while employed at West Virginia University as an associate engineering scientist.

Valentino Williams filed a lawsuit June 21 in Monongalia Circuit Court against West Virginia University's Board of Governors, alleging he was subjected to "the practice of supervisors and/or other coworkers making racial jokes and/or slurs due to the color of Plaintiff's skin and/or national origin."

Williams is represented by Morgantown attorney Crystal Hawkins Castleberry.

In his complaint, he says he started in the university's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering on Oct. 1, 2001, and eventually he was conspired against in order to cause him to quit the job.

He says he was "subjected to working conditions created by and/or known by Defendant and/or its agents that were so intolerable that a reasonable person would be compelled to quit," like the failure to renew his employment authorization card, causing him to lose work time, racial slurs, being assigned to activities he was not trained for then ridiculed for not doing them correctly and continuous harassment.

On June 22, 2004, Williams says he was compelled to resign.

"The manner of the constructive discharge of the plaintiff… by the defendant and/or its agents was outrageous," the complaint says.

Williams says he has suffered severe pain and suffering, economic and financial loss, annoyance, inconvenience, anxiety and stress and chagrin.

He seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Monongalia Circuit Court case number 06-C-400