Jacober v. United States Dep't of Agriculture Agency
| Decision Date | 17 September 2012 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL NO. lO-cv-422-WDS |
| Parties | BETTY A. JACOBER, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY, and GARY MERSINGER, Defendants. |
| Court | United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. Southern District of Illinois |
BETTY A. JACOBER, Plaintiff,
v.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY,
and GARY MERSINGER, Defendants.
CIVIL NO. lO-cv-422-WDS
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
DATE: 17 September, 2012
STIEHL, District Judge:
Before the Court are three pending motions: (1) defendants' consolidated motion to dismiss Counts 3 and 4 and all allegations of constructive or wrongful discharge (Doc. 44), to which the plaintiff filed a response (Doc. 50); (2) defendants' consolidated motion to dismiss defendants Gary Mersinger ("Mersinger") and the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") (Doc. 45), to which plaintiff did not file a response; and (3) defendants' consolidated motion for summary judgment (Doc. 53), to which the plaintiff has filed a response (Doc. 54), and defendants a reply (Doc. 57).
This cause of action arises from plaintiff's employment with and eventual resignation from the USDA. Plaintiff was employed by the USDA from approximately June 30, 1997, to April 11, 2008. The pertinent facts regarding plaintiff's employment at the USDA follow.
During her tenure, plaintiff worked as a Rural Development Specialist (a loan specialist) at the USDA Service Center located in the city of Edwardsville, in Madison County, Illinois. As a
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loan specialist, plaintiff's job duties included promoting the Rural development loan program, and reviewing credit reports, income, and home appraisals for low income home buyers within a five county area.
Defendant Mersinger was a Rural Development Manager, and plaintiff's supervisor at the service center from June 30, 1997 until October 1, 2007. Next in plaintiff's supervisory chain of command was James "Rusty" Wanstreet, District Area Director, followed by Douglas Wilson ("Wilson"), State Director, and Marianne Nixa ("Nixa"), Wilson's assistant, and finally, the chain ended with the National Directors. As of October 1, 2007, the management system was restructured, and Janet Fauth ("Fauth") became the Edwardsville office "office manager," but had no supervisory authority.
Stepping back a few years, during the summer of 2005, plaintiff and Gale Bolen ("Bolen"), plaintiff's co-worker who was employed as a technician at the Edwardsville office, contacted Nixa, to inform her about "concerns" they had about Mersinger. Nixa set up a mediation among the three parties and Ronald Garland ("Garland"), a USDA employee relations specialist. At the mediation, held on July 28, 2005, the parties discussed their issues, which Garland described generally as their inability to work well together as a team (Doc. 53-5 at 8). At her deposition, plaintiff stated that the issues included Mersinger not answering her questions right away, and Mersinger requesting that plaintiff refer to the appropriate regulations instead of just telling applicants that Mersinger would not approve a loan. At the end of the mediation, plaintiff, Bolen, and Mersinger signed an agreement regarding the ways in which each of them would alleviate the various issues, for example, each would fill out their calendar, they would hold weekly workload priority meetings, etc. (Doc. 53-6).
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No informal or formal EEO complaint was filed with respect to plaintiff and Bolen's concerns in 2005, and there was no mention whatsoever of issues of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability status, or retaliation from previous EEO activity at the mediation or in the signed mediation agreement. Garland stated under oath that the mediation was not an EEO complaint (Doc. 53-5 at 11). Plaintiff claims, that she believed this to be an EEO complaint, but produces no evidence whatsoever to support this claim.
Nearly two (2) years later, in March of 2007, plaintiff and Bolen drove together to a training meeting in Peoria, Illinois. Upon their return, Mersinger questioned plaintiff as to why it took so long for them to return from their trip. Plaintiff told Mersinger that they had to stop during the drive to take breaks due to her back pain. She asserts that Mersigner was aware of her back issues, but accused her of wrongdoing, namely, what plaintiff terms "travel fraud," as a form of retaliation. After a "heated" discussion regarding the appropriate amount of leave time, plaintiff took some leave time for the return trip from Peoria.
Also in 2007, plaintiff was involved in an investigation of possible loan fraud regarding Mary Goode ("Goode"), an outside real estate agent and contractor who frequently worked with the Rural Development program. While it is difficult to determine the exact date that suspicions arose regarding transactions with Goode, the record reflects that Mersinger vocalized concerns as early as February 20, 2007, at which time he asked plaintiff if she remembered anything unusual regarding a particular loan closing involving Goode, which the USDA later discovered included an altered loan document (Doc. 53-12 at 2). Mersinger voiced his suspicions again on May 22, 2007 (Doc. 53-9), at which time he emailed plaintiff and Bolen about certain issues with a loan closing involving Goode. The following day, May 23, 2007, Mersinger sent another email to plaintiff and
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Bolen stating that no side agreements would be allowed regarding the same Goode closing (Doc. 53-10). Mersinger also expressed his concerns to Barry Ramsey ("Ramsey"), Illinois Housing Program Director, in May of 2007 (Doc. 53-8 at 4-5). At some point thereafter, plaintiff became aware that she, along with Bolen, was being investigated by the USDA with respect to her dealings with Goode.
Later that year, in June or July 2007, during plaintiff's performance evaluation, she was told by Mersinger that she did not project a professional image because she was too friendly and personal with customers, homebuilders, and lenders (Doc. 53-14).
On July 16, 2007, plaintiff emailed images of Mersinger to Nixa, asking her whether the photographs of Mersinger projected a professional image of the USDA (Doc. 53-14). The images included two (2) photographs of Mersinger wearing bib overalls, a hardhat, toolbelt, and boots, with his arms crossed at his chest. Mersinger was not wearing a shirt beneath the overalls. Julie Sweetin ("Sweetin"), an intern, testified that she came up with the idea to take these photographs to add some humor to an otherwise dry powerpoint presentation she was preparing (Doc. 53-7 at 3-4). The powerpoint also included pictures of Sweetin in a similar outfit, but wearing a sleeveless shirt beneath the overalls. While plaintiff first referred to these photographs as "unprofessional," she later filed a complaint in which she claimed that the photographs were a form of sexual harassment.
On August 7, 2007, plaintiff submitted an informal EEO complaint in which she alleged Mersinger subjected her to sexual harassment on July 13, 2007, when he had a student female employee take shirtless pictures of him; that plaintiff complained to Nixa about Mersinger's behavior and in response Nixa "attacked" her for an unrelated event; that even though she received a recent positive mid-year performance appraisal, Mersinger "underlined points" in her appraisal
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and verbally stated that she was deficient; and that Mersinger made remarks about her known disability (back pains) (Doc. 54-3).
On October 1, 2007, the Edwardsville office was restructured: Mersinger was no longer plaintiff's supervisor, and Fauth joined the office, taking on a number of different tasks. At this point, plaintiff's job changed so that rather than working in five (5) counties, she thereafter only worked in three (3). The office loan goals remained the same however, and the responsibility to reach those goals was shared by plaintiff, Fauth, and the other office members. On October 3, 2007, two days after the office restructuring, plaintiff filed a formal complaint with the USDA, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation by her former supervisor, Mersinger (Doc. 38 at 2).
On November 13, 2007, Wilson, USDA State Director, sent a letter to plaintiff proposing to suspend plaintiff for 5 days without pay as a result of his investigation into plaintiff's dealings with Goode, to which plaintiff was allowed to and did file a reply. On November 28, 2007, Wilson sent a letter to plaintiff notifying her of the decision he had reached after consideration of her reply (Doc. 54-4). Wilson determined that: plaintiff admitted to omitting from the loan record any information regarding an altered document that she was aware of, and that her acceptance of a fraudulent document could not be justified by plaintiff's claim that she was "too busy"; plaintiff did not inform Mersinger of the altered document, but allowed the closing to proceed, which resulted in $6000 of loan and grant funds being paid to Goode at the closing, even though those funds should have been applied to the borrowers' account to pay down their loan; plaintiff and Bolen withheld knowledge of the fraudulent inspection document1 when Mersinger asked them both about it at a
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meeting on February 20, 2007; plaintiff gave Goode preferential treatment by approving a loan closing where funds were paid to Goode based on fraudulent and inadequate documentation; plaintiff's referral of Goode's nephew and...
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