By: Frank Witsil, staff writer, The Detroit Free Press
March 11, 2005
In an unusual twist, a male officer alleges in a lawsuit that his female superior at the Woodhaven Police Department sexually propositioned him in 1999, and after he spurned her, she retaliated by demoting him and withholding his pay.
The officer, Chad Donnelly, and his supervisor, Sandra Andrews, who is now deputy police chief, still work for the department. The City of Woodhaven, which is being sued in Wayne County Circuit Court for more than $25,000, is "vigorously defending the case," City Attorney Audrey Forbush said.
Donnelly's lawyer, Jim Fett, says the department did not investigate his client's complaints, and instead mocked him and turned him into a "laughingstock."
"There is cultural conditioning that may cause some people not to take as seriously a man's allegations against a woman as seriously as a charge against a man," said Larry Dubin, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy's School of Law. "But the law applies to both sexes."
Dubin cautions companies to have sexual harassment policies and to apply them.
According to Donnelly's lawsuit:
Anders, then a lieutenant, suggested to Donnelly, a married officer with the department for nearly nine years, that he accompany her to Lansing for a training class and "suggested that the training would involve after-hours activity of a sexual nature." Donnelly refused to go, but she continued to proposition him.
She made comments, almost daily, that he should pack his bags and get ready for "our trip."
He also complained to then-Police Chief Roy Rook, who responded: "Go to Lansing and have a good time," according to the lawsuit. Rook allegedly told Donnelly that she "would be the chief one day."
Donnelly also allegedly reported the incidents to then-Deputy Chief Doug Davis, who allegedly laughed and said "give her what she wants." Neither took any remedial action and Donnelly alleges in the lawsuit that Andrews continued to harass him. Davis, now chief, declined to comment.
The lawsuit also alleges that Donnelly was subject to comments from his coworkers who told him to have sex with Andrews, referring to her as his "girlfriend," and telling him, among others things, that if he had gone to Lansing with her he'd "be a captain now."
In addition, the lawsuit alleges that a lieutenant walked up to Donnelly at a party and said, in front of Donnelly's wife and then-chief Rook: "If you just had sex with Andrews in Lansing, you wouldn't have any problems." Donnelly alleges that after he rebuffed Andrews, she began calling him names, told him, "You are at my beck and call," denied him opportunities to get more pay, denied him overtime, demoted him from senior patrolman, falsely accused him of improper behavior, denied his requests for time off and transferred him to an undesirable assignment.
Fett said his client waited for about five years before filing a lawsuit because he thought that the harassment would eventually stop and because he feared the "blue curtain," an unspoken understanding among police officers not to squeal on their department.
Eventually, Fett added, Donnelly realized that it wasn't going to get any better and filed the lawsuit.
Copyright 2005, Detroit Free Press Inc.
