Monongahela agrees to $30k settlement in former officer’s discrimination suit
Monongahela officials agreed to a $30,000 settlement to end a federal lawsuit brought by a former part-time police officer who claimed she faced discrimination and harassment while she worked for the city.
The settlement ends a federal lawsuit brought by Lindsi Kopko of Canton Township in October.
The agreement includes $17,600 in damages to Kopko, plus $12,400 to her attorney, Robert Bracken.
Kopko’s lawsuit contained claims of sex/gender discrimination, hostile work environment, unlawful retaliation and violations of the state Human Relations Act.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer signed an order dismissing the case May 10. The city released a copy of the agreement Tuesday under the state Right-To-Know Law.
The settlement includes language the city “in no way admits that it treated (Kopko) unlawfully or wrongfully in any way.”
City solicitor Todd Pappasergi declined to discuss the terms of the settlement.
“The only comment I can provide is that the case has been resolved and it’s over,” he said earlier this month.
Bracken wrote in court papers that his client had been the target of harassment by other members of the department and Mayor Bob Kepics after she reported a text calling her a “snitch” and an obscene name that she’d received from a fellow officer, who later resigned, in late 2010.
She also claimed “no effective remedial action was taken” when she reported her colleagues’ conduct to police Chief Brian Tempest.
She also alleged she was told at one point she was the next eligible candidate for a full-time position, but was passed over for hiring when a spot opened up.
The city finally stopped giving her shifts in summer 2013, according to her lawsuit. She’d worked for the city since 2008.
City Clerk Carole Foglia referred questions to Tempest, who declined comment Tuesday.
Kopko is separately pursuing another federal lawsuit against North Franklin Township, where she was previously a part-time police officer.
In that case, she accuses the township of breaking with its usual practice of promoting the most senior part-time officer when full-time positions become available when it passed her over for a vacant full-time slot in 2015. She alleges she was passed over because she’s a woman and was on maternity leave.
She also alleges she was subjected to harassment and retaliation when she filed a discrimination charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.