By Zach Osowski
The Herald Bulletin
PENDLETON — Indiana’s prison agency forced a former female employee to work in a hostile environment at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, a federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled.
The Indiana Department of Correction mistreated Connie J. Orton-Bell by disregarding her complaints about workers having sex on her desk and when it later fired her for having an affair with an official.
In a complex and lengthy ruling, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago sent part of the case back to a federal court in Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis court had ruled earlier in favor of the state and against Orton-Bell, an abuse counselor who had been fired from her job in 2010 after having a sexual relationship with a major. The two would go to Orton-Bell’s house during lunch breaks to have sex and used their company email accounts to set up their next encounter and talk about their favorite sexual positions, according to court documents.
Both Orton-Bell and Maj. Joe Ditmer admitted to the sexual relationship and appealed their terminations to the State Employees’ Appeals Commission. The board’s ruling on Ditmer allowed him to resign in good standing and keep his pension. He also continued working at the maximum-security prison as a contractor.
After his ruling, Ditmer testified against Orton-Bell. Her termination was ruled as proper, according to court documents. She was not allowed the benefits she had built up while working at the prison and claimed her termination caused her difficulty in receiving unemployment benefits.
Feeling she had been discriminated against, Orton-Bell filed suit against the prison charging officials with discrimination, creating a hostile environment and retaliation. The Indiana court found against Orton-Bell on all three counts but the 7th Circuit Court reversed the decision on the allegations of discrimination and a hostile work environment.
According to testimony from the case, Orton-Bell alleged the work situation in the facility was “saturated with sexual comments that constantly bombarded Orton-Bell and other female prison employees.”
Orton-Bell said former Prison Superintendent Brett Mize had a meeting with her to let her know she couldn’t wear jeans on Friday like everyone else because “her ass looked so good that she would cause a riot.”
She claimed statements like this from Mize were commonplace and that nearly all of the male employees made similar comments throughout the day.
Mize was later fired after an investigation uncovered him having an affair with a member of the infirmary.
Orton-Bell also alleged male employees would watch as she and other female employees went through the pat-down procedure upon coming into the facility every day. She testified the female pat-downs were more thorough and that the male employees would make comments while the pat-downs were going on.
Perhaps most egregious, was the claim of night-shift employees using Orton-Bell’s desk for sex while she was gone. After asking an investigator what to do about the situation, Orton-Bell said she was advised “to wash her desk off every day.”
The documents also said Finnan was aware of her desk being used for sex and allegedly said he didn’t care as long prisoners weren’t involved.
The court argued all of these factors added to up to a hostile work environment and believed Orton-Bell had been discriminated against at the prison and in the appeal of her termination.
Doug Garrison, chief communications officer for the Department of Correction, said the Indiana Attorney General’s office would decide if additional legal steps are necessary after the ruling. He also said the state policies do not condone the alleged activities.
“It should be noted that state government and its personnel policies prohibit sexual harassment and inappropriate workplace conduct,” Garrison said.
He declined to comment further on the litigation.
The Indiana Attorney General’s office also declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
The case has been remanded back to the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana for further judgment. No date has been set.