PRINCETON – A Mercer County woman says she was harassed and discriminated against because of a medical condition.
Janet A. Booth filed her complaint August 12 in Mercer Circuit Court against Pinnacle Dermatology Management LLC, Eric Besenyei, Amy Wyrick, Amber Thomas and Angela Harman.
According to the complaint, Booth is a licensed practical nurse who suffers from Crohn’s Disease, a chronic condition that causes inflammation and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract. It can cause abdominal pain, joint pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, reduced appetite, weight loss, malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia, shortness of breath, osteoarthritis, Vitamin D deficiency and joint pain.
Booth says the disease substantially limits her major life activities, including working, driving, moving, dressing and breathing. She says she suffers from anxiety, depression and stress, which can exacerbate the symptoms. In addition, she says she requires blood transfusions and iron transfusions because of anemia.
She worked for Dermatology Associates and Skin Surgery Center in Princeton from 2008 until it was acquired by Pinnacle in September 2021. She says she worked there until she was constructively discharged in September 2022.
As a regional clinical manager, Booth says she was required to travel for work only on rare occasions. A month after Pinnacle acquired the location, she was told by Besenyei, Pinnacle’s regional director of operations, she was being reclassified as regional clinical supervisor and asked if she would agreed to stay employed in that position. The only change in the job duties was that she would be required to travel more frequently to Pinnacle’s various clinics including locations in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
Booth says Besenyei false claimed the travel would not be excessive, but he did tell her she would need to start being in Charleston at least four days a week. She says she immediately told Besenyei she had medical issues that prohibited her from traveling extensively and requested a meeting to discuss “ADA accommodations.”
She says she asked for her medical condition to remain private, and she also said she felt she was being unfairly attacked because of her medical condition. Besenyei told Booth to have her doctor call him to discuss it “with a veiled threat that he and the doctor are ‘friends.’”
“Sure enough, plaintiff’s doctor uncharacteristically refused to write a reasonable accommodations letter as she requested, instead directing her to have a specialist write it,” the complaint states.
Booth says Besenyei told her to email her request so he could discuss it with human resources and the chief operating officer. Within hours, she says Besenyei emailed her to say she would have to travel and told her she needed to make a decision within 24 hours because the company “needs to pivot in another direction” if she wasn’t interested.
She says she was told her pay would decrease by more than half if she refused the position, so she accepted the job to avoid having her pay reduced.
Booth said she knew another employee had requested accommodations in the past and that Besenyei had said that employee should be terminated for doing so. When she brought this up to Besenyei, she says he asked, “Who, Kim?”
A few days after accepting the position, Booth says she emailed human resources to report she had been subjected to harassment and requested an in-person meeting. HR representative Sheila Holt proposed a meeting time, but it was when Booth would be driving from Charleston. She offered to take part in a call or to respond by email, but she says she didn’t hear more from Holt. She says she made multiple requests for the meeting that were ignored.
Booth also says Besenyei began treating her in a hostile and abusive manner, often not communicating with her when she requested it. When he did, she says he was rude and unprofessional.
After more than a month, Booth complained to Besenyei that he was harassing her, discriminating against her and subjecting her to a hostile work environment. She told him it was illegal and that she could no longer work under such conditions. She also asked for a meeting with his supervisor.
Booth claims Thomas, regional manager of the Charleston and Teays Valley locations, enforced decisions by Besenyei and Wyrick about where and when Booth reported to work. Together, she says they made her job “more difficult and expose(d) her to a hostile work environment.” She says Thomas told her the issues between Booth and Besenyei were “a pissing contest.”
Booth says Holt eventually told her the complaints were being investigated and provided her with paperwork for necessary accommodations.
But she says Besenyei still had her driving to Charleston. She says she had had accidents where she soiled herself and had started wearing diapers to work.
Another doctor filled out the paperwork requesting accommodations for Booth, and Booth says two positions came open that would have negated the need for her to travel. But she says Besenyei told her he “hires who he wants to hire.” She says Besenyei also had Wyrick, a subordinate, to perform Booth’s evaluation, which was negative at Besenyei’s direction.
On February 8, 2022, Booth says she was given a memorandum saying she was being reassigned to an LPN position to alleviate the need for travel. It said no pay adjustment would be made “at this time.” If she refused to sign the memo, she said she was told she would “need to find employment elsewhere.” She accepted the change.
In August 2022, Booth says Harman, her supervisor, told her she again would be required to travel to other offices. She says Harman was carrying out the discriminatory orders from Besenyei and Wyrick.
On September 8, 2022, Booth said she constructively discharged herself from Pinnacle because the hostile work environment, retaliation and discrimination made it impossible for her to remain employed there.
Booth accuses the defendants of disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, hostile work environment based on disability, constructive discharge, reprisal, reprisal/retaliatory constructive discharge, aiding and abetting.
She seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. She is not seeking reinstatement at this time.
Booth is being represented by Michael P. Addair of Addair Entsminger in Charleston.
Mercer Circuit Court case number 24-C-189