KINGWOOD – A former Preston County Office of Emergency Management dispatcher says she was subjected to inappropriate sexual conduct and retaliation after she reported her concerns to county officials.
Kaylin Powers filed her complaint January 27 in Preston Circuit Court against the Preston County Commission.
According to her complaint, Powers started working at the OEM on January 3, 2022. Carrie Pratt and Mariah Mallory also worked at the OEM as supervisors and trainers.
Toriseva
Powers says she struggled to focus on workplace duties when Pratt and Mallory were present because “they routinely created a hostile work environment” because they regularly “had inappropriate sexual conversations” in her presence.
She says they showed her inappropriate photos and sexual text messages while at work, including a photo Pratt showed of herself topless that was part of a sexual texting string with her husband. She also says Mallory spoke of having oral and anal sex with her partner that included “explaining in graphic detail.”
Powers says the pair also asked her a host of inappropriate, offensive, vulgar and sexually explicit questions about her sexual life. She says the women also used racial slurs and other offensive terms in her presence. And, she says Mallory also read portions of a romance novel included detailed, graphic sexual encounters out loud.
Powers says she feared retaliation if she reported conduct. But on March 24, 2022, she did send an email to dispatch supervisor Kendra Born about the situation.
On March 30, 2022, Preston County OEM Director Duane Hamilton came to the office to address Powers’ concerns. But, she says Hamilton inappropriately identified her as the source of the anonymous complaint. In addition, she says Hamilton did not properly address her concerns or the supervisors’ behavior. Instead, she says he told Powers to “grow thicker skin.”
After she raised her concerns, Powers says the defendants have changed the terms and conditions of employment and have retaliated against her by being subjected to even stricter and more exacting scrutiny and monitoring. It also includes comments on her attitude, mood and interaction with coworkers. Also, she says her workstation was moved directly between those of Pratt and Mallory to intimidate her.
She also says the supervisors increased the frequency of her work reviews, increased the level and scrutiny and monitoring, tracked her actions in a word document, documented what she did on a daily basis, changed her original work reports to include several additional categories upon which she was scrutinized and documented how much or how little she was socializing with the other employees. She says she felt like she was “under a microscope” and that other employees were not subjected to the same level of scrutiny.
Powers says Pratt and Mallory “have become a constant source of anxiety in her life,” adding that she is “unable to learn and work in such a hostile environment due to the inappropriate conversations detailing explicit sexual situations and pervasively offensive behavior.”
On April 7, 2022, Powers says she was constructively discharged because of the ongoing, pervasive, offensive and hostile work environment.
She accuses the defendants of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, violating the West Virginia Whistleblower Law, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, negligent retention and negligent supervision.
Powers says she has suffered personal injuries and damages, including mental suffering and mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, embarrassment, indignity and shame as well as economic damages, diminished earning capacity and future lost wages. She seeks compensatory damages.
She is being represented by Teresa Toriseva, Joshua Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Stephen L. Shaffer.
Preston Circuit Court case number 23-C-11
