CHARLESTON – A former employee of the state Department of Health and Human Resources says she was a victim of sexual harassment while working at the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital.
Linda F. Hitt filed her complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against the DHRR, Charles McCrary, Carolyn Bleigh and Kenneth Thompson.
According to the complaint, Hitt says she was subjected to unwanted and lewd comments by a male co-worker and exposed to an intolerable sexually hostile work environment at the facility in Weston.
Hitt says she was assigned by Bleigh in 2020 to work on a transport team with Thompson. She says Thompson began creating a sexually hostile work environment during work trips by subjecting her to inappropriate comments regarding a former co-worker. Hitt says Thompson asked her if she was having sexual relations with the former employee and asking inappropriate questions about the implied relationship.
Hitt says she asked Thompson to stop making the comments, but he continued. Later, he made similar comments in the transport office at Sharpe Hospital in front of co-workers and Bleigh, who laughed in response. Hitt says she asked Bleigh to stop Thompson from making such comments.
“Bleigh responded that she was not going to do so, this was just how defendant Thompson was, and plaintiff was going to have to deal with it,” the complaint states.
Hitt says Thompson continued to make such comments in the workplace and in front of Bleigh. The comments were both verbal and written, including sticky notes Thompson placed on walls around the office alleging Hitt was in a relationship with a female co-worker and comments in a Facebook group chat used by the transport team.
When Hitt continued to report Thompson’s behavior to Bleigh, she claims Bleigh began retaliating against her by removing her from the transport team schedule or shortening her trips and assigning her to work on patient unit halls at the hospital instead.
In November 2021, Bleigh took a different position at the hospital and was replaced by McCrary. But, Hitt says Bleigh continued to prepare the transport team’s work schedules and requests for time off.
Hitt also says Thompson’s inappropriate conduct continued after McCrary took the job. The implication she was having sexual relations with the former co-worker continued, but it also included implications she had sex with a hospital patient.
“Plaintiff responded by telling defendant Thompson that his comments upset her because of abuse she had suffered in her past,” the complaint states. “However, defendant Thompson continued to harass plaintiff.”
When Hitt complained to McCrary about Thompson, McCrary said he wouldn’t remove Thompson from the transport team “until someone in Charleston told him that he had to do so, and by stating that if plaintiff were in the Marine Corps, this would all be handled differently.”
On January 12, 2022, Hitt says Thompson referenced her past abuse in front of co-workers and said she didn’t have time for sex with a boyfriend when she was younger because of such abuse. That incident caused Hitt to initiate a grievance against Thompson for harassment.
Hitt says she still saw Thompson at work and that Thompson and other co-workers began threatening her. Those threats included calling Hitt “a fat cow” and “threatening to split her body up and take it to different pig farms.”
When she reported the threats to DHHR CEO Pat Ryan, Hitt says she was told there was nothing he could do.
Hitt says her supervisors also were changing her requests for sick time to vacation time. A Human Resources representative told Hitt to report back when that happened so HR could correctly enter her requests. In April 2022, McCrary told Hitt that HR Director Cecil Pritt had said she would be terminated when she ran out of vacation time.
She says she has suffered loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, aggravation and emotional distress.
Hitt accuses the DHHR of sexual harassment, hostile work environment, negligent supervision and training and negligent retention. She accuses Thompson of harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She accuses McCrary and Bleigh of aiding and abetting. She accuses all defendants of reprisal, and all defendants except Thompson of violating the state Whistle-blower Law.
She seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
In their answers, the defendants deny the allegations and seek to have the case dismissed.
Hitt is being represented by Todd Bailess, Jodi Durham and Cory Lowe of Bailess Law Firm in Charleston. The DHHR, McCrary and Bleigh are being represented by Bryan Cokeley and Mark Dean of Steptoe & Johnson. Thompson is being represented by Jennifer Tully and Celeste Webb of Bailey & Wyant. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-449
