Jean-Baptiste v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 18 March 2013
• Docket Number: Civil No. 11–1587 (RCL).
• Citation: 931 F.Supp.2d 1
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
• Parties: Carmen JEAN–BAPTISTE, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Defendant.

931 F.Supp.2d 1

Carmen JEAN–BAPTISTE, Plaintiff,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Defendant.

Civil No. 11–1587 (RCL).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

March 18, 2013.

Abby Morrow Richardson, Timothy B. Fleming, Wiggins, Childs, Quinn Pantazis, PLLC, Gary T. Brown, Gary T. Brown & Associates, Washington, DC, Daniel E. Arciniegas, Herman N. Johnson, Jr., Jon C. Goldfarb, Robert F. Childs, Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, LLC, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff.

Alex Karpinski, Office of Attorney General, Denise J. Baker, Office of the Attorney General for District of Columbia, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROYCE C. LAMBERTH, Chief Judge.

Following a six-day trial in which the jury returned a verdict on all counts and a $3.5 million compensatory award for plaintiff Carmen Jean–Baptiste, the defendant District of Columbia (“the District”) filed this Motion [188] for a New Trial, a New Trial on Damages or, in the Alternative, for Remittitur. Upon consideration of the motion, Jean–Baptiste's Opposition [194] thereto, the District's Reply [199], the entire record herein, and the applicable law, the Court will DENY the District's motion with respect to its request for a new trial or a new trial on damages and will GRANT the District's motion with respect to its request for remittitur. Jean–Baptiste will have twenty one days in which to decide whether to accept a reduced award of $350,000, which is the highest amount the jury tolerably could have awarded, or whether to proceed to a new trial on damages.

I. BACKGROUND

In late April or early May 2006, plaintiff Jean–Baptiste was hired as a lifeguard by the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation (“DPR”). The parties disputed whether she was hired as a seasonal or year-round employee. Jean–Baptiste was assigned to the Takoma Pool and reported to Assistant Pool Manager Rodney Weaver. Jean–Baptiste alleged that Weaver sexually harassed her and that, after she reported the conduct, Weaver and the District retaliated against her and ultimately terminated her employment in mid-October 2006.

Jean–Baptiste sued the District alleging a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA), D.C. Code § 2–1401.01 et seq. (Counts 1–2); deliberate indifference to her Fifth Amendment constitutional rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count 3); and retaliation in violation of Title VII, the DCHRA, § 1983, and the D.C. Whistleblower Act (“WPA”), D.C. Code §§ 1–615.51 et seq.) (Counts 4–7). Third Am. Compl. 12–17, July 5, 2007, ECF No. 51. This Court granted summary judgment for the District on the § 1983 claims and denied it with respect to the hostile work environment and retaliation claims under Title VII, the DCHRA, and the WPA. Mem. Op., Aug. 16, 2011, ECF No. 161; Order, Aug. 16, 2011, ECF No. 162. Jean–Baptiste's hostile work environment and retaliation claims proceeded to trial in August 2012.¹

At trial, the jury heard testimony of a “culture of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination at Takoma,” of a “boys-gone-wild culture” in the aquatics department, and, with respect to many of the male supervisors above Jean–Baptiste, “a boys club from the top down.” Test. of Stacy Mills, Trial Tr. 42–48, Aug. 7, 2012. They also heard testimony about inadequate policies and practices of the District in responding to sexual harassment complaints.

Jean–Baptiste testified that Weaver started to sexually harass her as soon as she began working at Takoma. Specifically she stated that he told her he was interested in her, asked her to go with him to Atlantic City, and crudely and sexually propositioned her, specifically stating that he “wanted to get some of [her] pussy for [his] birthday.” Trial Tr. 28–30, Aug. 6, 2012. He would also call her out of the pool while she was swimming and then stand before her with an erection, staring at her body and her vaginal area and licking his lips. Id. Finally, she stated that he would touch her hair. Id. Jean–Baptiste testified that she told him his conduct made her uncomfortable and asked him to stop, but that the conduct persisted, though for how long is unclear. Compare Test. of Carmen Jean–Baptiste, Trial Tr. 29–32, Aug. 6, 2012 (stating that the harassment occurred “daily” and “never stopped”) with Test. of Carmen Jean–Baptiste, Trial Tr. 154–58, Aug. 6, 2012 (stating that the “earliest date of harm is May 1st, what I said and when he started, and the latest date of harm is June 2006”) and Def.'s Ex. 88 (stating the same).

Jean–Baptiste verbally complained to Weaver's supervisors, and named six supervisors to whom she had brought her concerns. Id. at 35. Each supervisor said that he or she would look into the matter. Id. at 35–51. Jean–Baptiste testified that one supervisor, Solomon Robinson, required her to present her complaint in a meeting with Rodney Weaver, such that she had to confront her harasser. Test. of Carmen Jean–Baptiste, Trial Tr. 42–45, Aug. 6, 2012. Jean–Baptiste stated that, during this meeting, Weaver did not deny he had harassed her. Test. of CarmenJean–Baptiste, Trial Tr. 45, Aug. 6, 2012 (“Rodney didn't say anything, and Solomon in return said, ‘[S]ince you didn't respond ... everything she's telling me now is the truth.’ ”); Test. of Solomon Robinson, Trial Tr. 129, Aug. 7, 2012 (“Rodney [said] ‘Carmen, you know we play around.’ ”). However, Mr. Robinson never investigated the complaint further or referred it to higher level supervisors or the EEO office. See id. at 129 (“You don't know DPR very much if you think the policy means [the sexual harassment complaint] goes up [the chain of command].... You give the immediate supervisor an opportunity to address the issues.”); cf. Pl.'s Ex. 70 (“All managers and supervisors are responsible for ... ensuring that complaints of [sexual harassment and retaliation] are promptly forwarded to the EEO Officer or Chief of Human Resources.”); Test. of Sean Link, Trial Tr. 107, Aug. 8, 2012 (responding affirmatively when asked whether, “[w]hen a supervisor receives a complaint, according to this, they're supposed to forward the complaint on to higher levels and also EEO, correct?”). Instead, Mr. Robinson “left it in the hands of” Sean Link, Weaver's direct supervisor. Id. at 125. Sean Link, however, denied having been aware of the matter and does not appear to have investigated either. Test. of Sean Link, Trial Tr. 88, Aug. 8, 2012 (answering in the affirmative when asked whether it was his testimony that “during Ms. Baptiste's employment [he] never even heard of any complaint of sexual harassment against Rodney Weaver that she had made during her entire summer employment, correct?”).

At least two individuals complained to management on Jean–Baptiste's behalf. Stacy Mills, a volunteer who was regularly at the Takoma pool, testified that she complained about sexual harassment by both Rodney Weaver and Robert Ford, another manager at the pool. She stated that Weaver sexually harassed staff and that she complained to Sylvia Gwathmey, the chief shop steward with the union, to deputy director Roslyn Johnson, to an executive of the mayor's office, and to a female attorney in the D.C. Attorney General's office. Trial Tr. 37–45, Aug. 6, 2012.

Additionally, after Jean–Baptiste complained to Margarita Cruz, an assistant manager at the pool, the two had a meeting with Rodney Weaver. Cruz testified that during the meeting, Weaver stroked Jean–Baptiste's hair and told Jean–Baptiste she was beautiful. Trial Tr. 40, Aug. 8, 2012. Later, during a meeting between Cruz, Weaver, Sean Link, and Robert Ford, Cruz reported that Jean–Baptiste had made a sexual harassment complaint to her against Weaver. Cruz testified that Robert Ford said he would not do anything about the complaint. After the men asked Cruz to leave the meeting, she overheard Robert Ford and Rodney Weaver joking about which one of them would “fuck” Jean–Baptiste first. Trial Tr., Aug. 8, 2012 at 43–46.²

Jean–Baptiste's was not the only complaint of sexual harassment at the Takoma pool during this period. Weaver had been accused of sexual harassment just one year before Jean–Baptiste was hired, and Jean–Baptiste presented evidence that the District conducted only a superficial “investigation” into the complaint. See Test. of Terrence Reddick, Trial Tr. 58–73, Aug. 7, 2012. In describing that investigation, former EEO Officer Terrence Reddick testified that he never asked anyone at the pool whether they had witnessed sexual harassment, he simply collected written statements from employees and concluded that there was no evidence of sexual harassment. Id. at 71–72 (in responding to questions about whether he had asked employees if they witnessed sexual harassment, Mr. Reddick responded, “it's not my role ... to investigate to that level”). In fact, according to Margarita Cruz, Weaver and Robert Ford “coerced” her into writing a statement for that investigation in which she exaggerated complaints about the victim's work performance. Test. of Margarita Cruz, Trial Tr. 31–35, 53, Aug. 8, 2012.

To make matters worse, Margarita Cruz testified that she had been sexually harassed by Robert Ford. Test. of Margarita Cruz, Trial Tr. 27–31. Thus, one of the supervisors to whom Jean–Baptiste complained about sexual harassment had allegedly sexually harassed another supervisor to whom she also complained.

After Jean–Baptiste notified supervisors that Weaver was harassing her, she said that Weaver began to criticize her job performance, and to force her to sit in the lifeguard's chair for two and a half hours at a time, instead of the fifteen minutes recommended by the Red Cross. Id. at 42–49. She also stated that Weaver and Robert Ford threatened to have her transferred or fired if she didn't “listen to what [they] said.” Id. at 52.

Weaver denied touching Jean–Baptiste's hair, standing before her with an erection,...