The Associated Press
McCONNELLSBURG, Pa. -- Nancy Drew Suders spent just five months as a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher before quitting because of what she said was a continual stream of lewd and offensive comments by her supervisors.
Now her lawsuit against the State Police is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Wednesday on whether she can sue after not taking advantage of a State Police system for handling sexual harassment complaints.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that employers who have such plans are immune from sexual harassment lawsuits, unless the employee is fired or punished in some way.
At issue in Suders’ case is whether quitting under duress is the legal equivalent of being fired.
If the high court backs Suders, employers worry that they’ll have to conduct expensive reviews each time someone quits to protect themselves from sexual harassment lawsuits.
Suders, now 60, is a former deputy sheriff who went to work for the State Police in March 1998.
In her civil rights lawsuit, she said her supervisors talked about bestiality, genitalia and oral sex. Another supervisor repeatedly acted out a sexually provocative wrestling stunt, it said.
John G. Knorr III, the deputy state attorney general who represents the troopers, said: “A lot of the stuff she says happened, never happened at all, and a lot of other stuff happened in a way that’s very different than the way she’s telling it.”
A federal judge threw out her lawsuit in August 2001, ruling Suders was not entitled to the same legal protections as sexual-harassment victims who are fired.
But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reinstated the case in April 2003. It ruled that the events leading up to her resignation were evidence that her bosses were trying to dismiss her.