PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Five employees are suing the city, claiming a hostile work environment and sexual harassment as a result of an alleged affair between the mayor and finance director.
The suits were filed Tuesday by attorney Bill Merriman on behalf of Stephanie Boone, Darci Dyke, Vicki Gheen, Sarah Goff and Tina Hughes, all of whom work in the city Finance Department. The suits say Mayor Bob Newell and Finance Director Ashley Flowers have had an “inappropriate/unprofessional relationship” for approximately a year.
Contacted Wednesday about the lawsuits, Newell said, “I don’t any longer want to respond to that garbage.”
He was also making reference to a complaint submitted Tuesday by Wood County Republican Party Chairman Rob Cornelius to the West Virginia Ethics Commission. In it, Cornelius claims Newell and Flowers’ alleged affair resulted in improper use of municipal time, money, property and equipment and questions a $12,000 raise Flowers received this year.
According to the suit, the workers have been subjected to offensive behavior and conduct that includes “conversations (both violent and sexual in nature) between the Finance Director and the Mayor,” “photographs (nude of both the Finance Director and Mayor)” and “videos (of sexual nature of the Mayor and the Mayor and Finance Director, etc.).”
As a result, each plaintiff “has been physically ill, sustains tremendous stress, loss of sleep, inability to work at the workplace, humiliation and fear of retaliation if she did not participate as well as other damaging consequences,” the suits say.
Each suit also claims counts of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, outrage (claiming the distress was “so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it”) and negligent supervision and training by the city in terms of workplace harassment and offensive conduct.
Parkersburg City Attorney Joe Santer said Wednesday he was “baffled” by the lawsuits.
“I’m surprised at this suit. I’m surprised at the allegations,” he said. “I’ll be surprised if there’s any truth to them, quite frankly.”
Santer said he’d never heard even a rumor about any issues in the Finance Department.
“I find that hard to believe given how that department has functioned, given what appears to be a normal relationship between these (women) and Ms. Flowers,” he said.
City Personnel Director Pam Salvage said none of the plaintiffs had filed a complaint with her department. However, the lawsuit does note a “fear of retaliation” on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The suits seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the plaintiffs.
Santer said the city’s insurance carrier will hire an attorney to litigate the case.
Merriman did not return calls seeking comment.
Flowers did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. On Tuesday, both she and Newell declined to discuss the alleged affair.
Flowers denied the suggestion that her raise was in any way related to Newell, noting that it was approved by City Council as part of a pay restructuring proposal that affected the other department heads and provided across-the-board 2.5 percent raises to other city employees.
Cornelius’ claims were based on a disk he said was anonymously submitted to him. It reportedly contains nearly 1,400 text, audio, video and photo files detailing the alleged affair.
The West Virginia State Police have been investigating the disk and other flash drives containing the data that have reportedly been distributed to various people in the community. On Wednesday, Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Wharton said the investigation was initiated at his request.
“The Wood County Prosecutor’s Office received thumb drives on two separate occasions over a nine-day period in late December and early January containing information related, in part, to the City of Parkersburg’s computer network,” he said. “After a partial review of one of the thumb drives, I requested on Jan. 8, 2015, that the Superintendent of the State Police appoint a trooper from outside of this area to investigate possible criminal conduct related to the thumb drives that were delivered to my office.
“The request was a general request regarding possible criminal conduct, but specifically included that the State Police investigate whether the contents of the thumb drives were obtained in violation of law through unauthorized access of a computer or computer network,” Wharton said.
Newell said Tuesday he was the victim in the incident and would decide whether to press civil or criminal charges. Flowers said she’d had information stolen from her.
Wharton said he remains in contact with investigators and is awaiting their final report.
State Police Capt. A.L. Cummings previously said there was no indication of any criminal conduct by Newell or any city employees and that he did not expect charges to be filed.
Santer said he was contacted in passing by Wharton about the disk, but did not know about its reported contents.
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