The trooper claims a pattern of abuse after alleging an attempted rape by a colleague
Thursday, October 26, 2006 - The Oregonian, ELIZABETH SUH
An Oregon State Police trooper who claims a fellow trooper attempted to rape her and then she endured retaliation and abuse for reporting the attack, has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the agency. Margaret Peggi Jones, a trooper based in Baker City since 2002, alleges a pattern of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation in the suit filed in U.S. District Court.
Spokesmen for the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Justice, which generally defends state agencies, said they had not had a chance to review the lawsuit and could not comment.
Jones, started working for the state police in 1997, and claims she's had trouble on the job for years, according to the suit. She was transferred to Baker City from another post after making complaints about a hostile work environment there.
In early 2003, she says a fellow trooper in Baker City, Ed Mercado, began harassing her. In May 2003, she says, he propositioned her for oral sex while he was on-duty and in uniform. The following month, she says he attacked her and attempted to rape her.
After keeping the attack to herself for a time, Jones says she reported it to her supervisor, Sgt. Lee Pearce, in August, and an internal affairs sergeant was assigned to investigate the incident. Jones also asked Baker County's district attorney to pursue a criminal case. In February 2004, a grand jury found there was not enough evidence to prove a crime occurred, according to the suit.
After that decision, Pearce was assigned to conduct a personnel investigation of the allegations, Jones claims, and in interviewing her, Pearce asked questions about her marriage, sex life and "attraction" to Mercado. Two months later, Pearce informed Jones he had substantiated Mercado's proposition of oral sex but could not substantiate the rape attempt and suggested any encounter must have been consensual, according to the suit.
"(Pearce) said it would be in her best interest to accept Mercado's apology," the suit says. "He made it very clear that if she opened her mouth about the incident her job would be in jeopardy."
Jones says other troopers told her they did not want to back her up in the field. In the following months, Jones claims, Mercado continued to sexually harass her.
She says he used a police scanner to monitor her whereabouts when he was off duty and showed up when she finished a shift. When a work shift change would require her to work with Mercado, Jones claims Pearce told her she needed counseling to "get over it" and that if she can't "fix" her problems she should find work elsewhere.
Jones claims her supervisors then assigned her a shared, unsupervised night shift with Mercado and twice placed her on administrative leave in retaliation for her complaints, once for damaging a laptop and then to evaluate her fitness for duty.
Jones claims her work experiences have caused her severe emotional and physical injury.
Jones and Mercado still work out of the Baker City office. Pearce has retired, according to a state trooper at the Baker City office.