Methuen Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit For $250,000
The city of Methuen will settle a sexual harassment lawsuit for $250,000. The sexual harassment case involves legal secretary Fulya Metin Campanelli and former city solicitor Maurice Lariviere who was her boss. According to published accounts the main claim was that Lariviere engaged in sexual harassment years before and the city did nothing to stop it and to punish him for it. This led him to believe he could continue to engage in sexual harassment and put her in close proximity with him. Another words she is saying that if they had fired him or given him discipline before he would not have been in a position to sexually harass her in the future like he did.
The history of a person accused of sexual harassment comes into play when a situation like this occurs. You can't put a person under the control of a person who has a history of sexual harassment without the proper monitoring in place. In affect you are putting fresh meat in front of a wild animal. In this case the wild animal cost he city $250,000. These types of employment law cases are very expensive, especially since the city also had to pay its' own lawyer a great deal of money to defend the case prior to settlement.
"The hardest and smartest thing to do is approve this and get this behind us,""It's a six-year horror show." said Councilor Michael Condon.
If this type of case took place in Illinois one could file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights ("IDHR"). The case would then be automatically cross-filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"). My Chicago office handles many sexual harassment cases and I am always at both agencies working on behalf of my clients. Protect your employment rights and don't let people who sexually harass you get away with it.
