MORGANTOWN – An employee of the Morgantown Police Department has sued the city, saying it released a file detailing a sexual harassment incident in which she was the victim that later was posted online.
The plaintiff, only identified as H.M., filed her complaint April 7 in Monongalia Circuit Court against the City of Morgantown. She says she has worked for the city for 13 years. The sexual harassment incident occurred in 2016.
“Our client, who remains a city of Morgantown employee, was satisfied with the handling of the incident by the Morgantown Police Department,” attorney Teresa Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “She had put the original incident behind her and was grateful for how it was handled within her department.
Toriseva
“But, the city’s inexplicable release of detailed intimate and personal information is both illegal and inexcusable. Our client is devastated at the privacy breach.”
According to the complaint, the city released an entire investigative file of a sexual harassment incident that occurred within the police department as a response to a December 2020 Freedom of Information Act request. The plaintiff is clearly identified as the victim in the file, and there was no redaction of her name. (The West Virginia Record has decided not to publish the name of the plaintiff, the details of the sexual harassment incident nor the name of the website which filed the FOIA request and posted the details online.)
“The release of this personal and private information has re-victimized H.M. forcing her to revisit an incident which she hoped to leave in her past,” the complaint states. “While the original matter was properly handled by the Department and to H.M.’s satisfaction, she now sues for an outrageous breach of her privacy that occurred on January 25, 2021, when the City of Morgantown inexplicably produced unredacted files to a third party with no right to obtain her personal information.
“Sadly, that third party then posted these documents online for all the world to see. H.M. is devastated.”
The underlying 2016 incident included a police officer asking the plaintiff about her sexual relations with other city employees during a briefing. The complaint says the questions made the others in the meeting uncomfortable, and the officer later admitted he was wrong to ask the plaintiff such questions.
“Ultimately the sexual harassment was handled internally by the Morgantown Police Department and resolved to H.M.’s satisfaction,” the complaint states. “Upon the resolution of the situation by her employer H.M. was happy to move on and forget about this uncomfortable situation.”
On December 4, 2020, an employee of a “non-profit collaborative news site” filed a FOIA request for “all materials and records describing and sufficient to show/disclose all allegations of misconduct made and all disciplinary proceedings taken against any officer, employee, or representative of this policing agency.”
On January 25, the Morgantown Police Department released the requested information, which then was published online. The information included the incident involving H.M., but her name was not redacted.
“Disclosing the identity of sexual harassment victims with no attempt to obscure, redact, or protect their personal information is an unreasonable invasion of privacy,” the complaint states. “At a minimum, the records to be released would have been reviewed by the Morgantown Chief of Police, the Morgantown City Attorney and the Morgantown City FOIA Officer. None of these individuals redacted or obscured information relating to H.M.’s victimization.
“No information contained in the account of H.M.’s sexual harassment has been redacted or obscured prior to its release by the City of Morgantown and its subsequent release (online).”
The plaintiff accuses the city of negligence, invasion of privacy, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligent retention, hiring and supervision.
“Plaintiff H.M., a victim of sexual harassment, deserves to have her identity and the details of her victimization kept private and protected from public disclosure,” the complaint states. “The release of internal Morgantown Police Department documents detailing H.M.’s sexual harassment … constitute unreasonable publicity given to another’s private life.
“The release of the records detailing H.M.’s victimization forced H.M. to relive the trauma associated with this incident.”
The plaintiff seeks compensatory damages. She is being represented by Toriseva and Michael A. Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling.
Monongalia Circuit Court case number 21-C-110