Millwood-Jones v. Holder
| Decision Date | 22 March 2016 |
| Docket Number | CV 214-035 |
| Parties | PAMELA MILLWOOD-JONES, Plaintiff, v. ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., Attorney General, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia |
Presently before the Court is Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (dkt. no. 43), which the parties have fully briefed, see dkt. nos. 51, 54-55.1 For the following reasons, Defendant's Motion (dkt. no. 43) is DENIED in its entirety.
BACKGROUND2
At all relevant times, Plaintiff and her husband, Jason Jones, have worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (the "BOP") at the Federal Correctional Institute in Jesup, Georgia ("FCI Jesup"). SUF, ¶¶ 1, 3, 11. Loretta E. Lynch is the Attorney General of the United States and the head of the United States Department of Justice. Dkt. No. 1, ¶ 5; Dkt. No. 43, p. 1 n.1. As the BOP is an agency of the Department of Justice, she has ultimate authority over BOP decisions. Dkt. No. 1, ¶ 5.
While Plaintiff's initial position at FCI Jesup was that of a correctional officer, Plaintiff subsequently applied and was selected for a unit secretary position—a position that she assumed on August 15, 2010. SUF, ¶¶ 4-5. Plaintiff has testified that while a unit secretary receives less pay than a correctional officer, she applied for the position "to broaden [her] experience." Id. at ¶ 6. However, after eight months in this position, Plaintiff requested to return to her previous position as a correctional officer. Id. at ¶ 5. Plaintiff's transfer from Unit Secretary back to Correctional Officer is reflected in a Notification of Personnel Action bearing the effective date May 8, 2011. Id. at ¶ 7.
In May 2011, Plaintiff and Jason Jones separated. Id. at ¶ 12. Within days, Plaintiff began speaking to Pritchard—an FCI Jesup Lieutenant at that time—"on a personal level." Id. at ¶¶ 13-14. Plaintiff and Pritchard communicated daily, exchanged romantic feelings for one another, and had their first sexual encounter on July 2, 2011. Id. at ¶¶ 16-17. Plaintiff has admitted that over the course of the months-long relationship that ensued, she had intercourse with Pritchard and performed oral sex on him. Id. at ¶ 14.
On one occasion, Plaintiff took her son on a fishing trip with Pritchard and his son. Dkt. No. 43, Ex. A ("Pl.'s Dep."), 71:22-72:1. According to Pritchard, he was drinking whiskey during the fishing trip, and Plaintiff performed oral sex on him while their sons were at the opposite end of the fishing pier. Dkt. No. 51, Ex. 11 ("Pritchard Dep."), 65:13-17, 91:2-6. Plaintiff, however, maintains that the two did not engage in sexual activity on the fishing trip because the two children were present. Pl.'s Dep., 72:2-7.
In October 2011, Plaintiff began to suspect that Pritchard was having sexual relations with two other women, including FCI Jesup Nurse Tracy Townsend ("Nurse Townsend"). SUF, ¶¶ 18, 23. When Plaintiff confronted Pritchard about her suspicions, he denied having any relationship with Nurse Townsend; however, when Plaintiff asked Nurse Townsend, Nurse Townsend confirmed that the two were seeing each other. Pl.'s Dep., 76:1-7, 90:11-14. The relationship between Plaintiff and Pritchard came to an end in late October 2011. SUF, ¶ 19.
Pritchard has testified that BOP policy prohibited him, as a superior officer, from engaging in a sexual relationship with Plaintiff—and that he knew that he was violating this policy during their relationship. See Pritchard Dep., 20:9-13. As Pritchard has acknowledged, however, there was no BOP policy that forbid Plaintiff's carrying on of such relationship. Id. at 20:14-18.
Plaintiff reported her affair with Pritchard to Warden Anthony Haynes ("Warden Haynes") in a memorandum dated November 16, 2011. Id. at ¶¶ 20, 28. Specifically, the memorandum stated as follows:
I . . . have been having an affair with . . . Pritchard since July 1, 2011. I have an emotional attachment to [Pritchard,] and he is aware of this. He has also stated that he was attached but he was going to work thing[s] . . . out with his wife. We ended our affair around October 27, 2011[,] because of this reason. Recently[,] I found out he is seeing [Nurse] Townsend . . . . I asked him not to let her come and sit in his office . . . . Today[,] she baked him cookies and brought them to his office. . . . . I think that he intentionally flaunted her and allowed her to visit with him in his office knowing that I would be upset.
Id. at ¶ 20. Upon receiving Plaintiff's memorandum, Warden Haynes instructed her to complete a second memorandum giving a more direct and clear account of what happened. Id. at ¶¶ 28-29. Accordingly, Plaintiff submitted a second memorandum, in which she added that, "[d]ue to [their] relationship and [Pritchard] subjecting [her] to the emotional trauma of watching his behavior with another female staff member, [she] [could] not . . . perform [her] job duties in a safe and effective manner with him as [her] supervisor." Id. at ¶ 31 (). Plaintiff also confronted Pritchard, in front of Nurse Townsend, about their affair and informed Pritchard's wife of her husband's affairs with Plaintiff and the two other female staff members. Id. at ¶ 68.
Warden Haynes referred Plaintiff's memoranda to the BOP's Office of Internal Affairs (the "OIA") for investigation. Id. at ¶ 30. Additionally, Captain Glenn Carrino ("Captain Carrino") notified Pritchard that Plaintiff had accused him of violating BOP policy. Pritchard Dep., 31:16-22. Captain Carrino ordered Pritchard to "refrain from any disruptive behavior or the appearance of inappropriate behavior." SUF, ¶ 32. He further advised Pritchard "to avoid interaction and contact with [Plaintiff] and . . . Jason Jones, her husband, at all times." Id.
Ultimately, the OIA investigation resulted in a charge against Pritchard for the offense of "Inappropriate Supervisor/Subordinate Relationship." Id. at ¶ 33. Based on this charge, Pritchard received a demotion, effective July 1, 2012, from Lieutenant to Sport Specialist. Id. at ¶¶ 34-35.
On November 17, 2011, just after Plaintiff reported their relationship, Pritchard attended a meeting with several other lieutenants and officers—including Lieutenant Joseph Arnett ("Lieutenant Arnett")—as well as Captain Carrino's Secretary at the time, Jodi Thomason ("Thomason"). Dkt. No. 51, Ex. M ("Thomason Dep."), 114:22-115:13, 115:20-116:11. Thomason has testified that during this meeting, Pritchard discussed his fishing trip to the pier with Plaintiff and related that he had been drinking heavily, "his dick had fell [sic] in her mouth," and "he didn't know how it [had] happened." Id. at 116:3-6. According to Plaintiff, Pritchard made this statement because he was angry that she had informed his wife of his affairs and had a "personal vendetta to humiliate her through deceitful lies." SUF, ¶ 68.
Soon after the November 17, 2011, meeting, another officer informed Plaintiff that Officer Jeremy Bowen ("Officer Bowen") had made a comment on December 3, 2011, referring to Plaintiff as having "road rash" on her mouth from performing oral sex. Pl.'s Dep., 100:21-101:6. Officer Michael Brown also notified Plaintiff that another FCI Jesup employee had warned him "not to get caught on the pier" with Plaintiff. Id. at 154:12-18. Additionally, Thomason heard Lieutenant Arnett joke about Plaintiff's sexual activity by stating, "Don't go fishing with [Plaintiff]." Thomason Dep., 118:22-25.
As Thomason was the President of the prison employees' union, multiple prison officials reported to her that they had heard others—including Lieutenant Arnett, Officer Bowen, and Officer Franklin Linder ("Officer Linder")—making derogatory comments and jokes about Plaintiff. Id. at 7:7-10, 120:23-130:21. In one instance in particular, an employee went to Thomason's office after a "lieutenants meeting" at which Thomason had not been present. Id. at 123:12-21. The employee told Thomason that at the meeting, Lieutenant Arnett had asked Pritchard—with regard to Plaintiff performing oral sex—"[D]id she swallow?" Id. at 123:23-25. However, Lieutenant Arnett has since denied making this comment in reference to Plaintiff, instead insisting that he asked this question while on the phone with his wife discussing their daughter's swollen tonsils. SUF, ¶ 66.
Plaintiff also has testified that some of her coworkers made hand motions mimicking the act of performing oral sex when they passed by her in the hallway. Pl.'s Dep., 158:24. Plaintiff has indicated that she cannot identify every single instance of this or any other act, because the FCI Jesup employees made comments or gestures about her sexual activity "every single day." Id. at 158:10-159:10. Even the prison inmates eventually caught on and joined in on the gossip. See id. at 147:19-23.
Distraught over her coworkers' actions, Plaintiff began feeling sick and went to get checked by the medical department at FCI Jesup. Id. at 101:6-9. Plaintiff learned that her blood pressure was high and thus decided to leave work and seek care at Wayne Memorial Hospital. Id. at 101:7-11. Plaintiff avoided returning to FCI Jesup and worked only periodically for the rest of December 2011. Id. at 101:14-17.
On January 31, 2012, Plaintiff contacted an Equal Employment Opportunity ("EEO") Counselor with the BOP to initiate the process of filing a sexual harassment complaint based on the "inappropriate conversations between [her] supervisors." Dkt. No. 11, Ex. C. Plaintiff finalized the EEO complaint on March 14, 2012. Id.
Additionally, on February 15, 2012, Thomason sent an e-mail to Warden Haynes informing him, in part, that Pritchard had made comments to fellow staff members concerning his sexual relations with Plaintiff. SUF, ¶ 36....
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