Female police officer says she was a victim of crude behavior
By: Craig Garrett, The Detroit News
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Dearborn - The city has settled a lawsuit filed by a female police officer who claimed she was punished for speaking out when a co-worker sexually harassed her at a department-run gun range.
Police Lt. Karen Ehlert on Tuesday settled the lawsuit charging sexual harassment and job retaliation for an undisclosed amount of money. The settlement followed nearly two years of court hearings, gag orders and allegations of test-tampering by the Dearborn Police Department.
Ehlert's lawyer, James K. Fett, said his client was happy to end the case by accepting the offer by a Wayne County Circuit Court medication panel.
"These (lawsuits) usually end in bitterness. But Karen is returning to normalcy. The terms reached are a good thing," he said.
In her lawsuit against the city, Ehlert, 38, had said members of the department turned against her when she complained in 1999 that a male officer had dropped his trousers and made sexual remarks in front of her. The two were alone at the department gun range when the alleged incident occurred.
Ehlert waited several months to make formal complaints against the officer because she said she didn't want to hurt the department, Fett said. Ehlert ultimately field a lawsuit against the city a year later because Dearborn police officials allegedly had altered a promotion test.
Another Dearborn officer had complained several of his answers were changed after he completed the test for the rank of lieutenant.
But an investigation into the matter by the Michigan State Police found no evidence to support those claims. Ehlert was a police sergeant at the time of the incidents. She has since been promoted to lieutenant.
When Ehlert finally complained to former Chief Ronald Deziel, she said he made vicious sexual remarks about her in front of his staff. Deziel's crude remarks about Ehlert were secretly recorded by a Dearborn police command officer and were later used in court depositions.
A Dearborn lawyer fighting the Ehlert case said the cash settlement puts the issue to rest after several tumultuous years.
"It's time for everyone to move forward," Dick Seryak said.
