Stillwater mayor sued

Rick Hoover - NewsPress
Stillwater NewsPress

May 15, 2008 03:50 pm

— Stillwater Mayor Roger McMillian is being sued for sexual harassment.
In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Payne County District Court, Stillwater residents Barbara Gose, Raeann Meyer and Lois Akers allege McMillian, as president of the Stillwater branch of The Bank, N.A., was guilty of creating a sexually-charged workplace and hostile work environment, and that “it was necessary for women to grant sexual favors to McMillian for professional advancement.”
Gose and Meyer are former employees of the Bank, N.A., in Stillwater; Akers is still employed. The Bank, N.A., with home offices in McAlester, also has been named as a defendant.
The plaintiffs are requesting a jury trial and are seeking actual and compensatory damages, punitive damages and fees to be determined by the jury.
“We intend to defend this lawsuit vigorously,” McMillian said Wednesday.
Lori L. Young, of Baumert, Cummings, Hiatt & Young of Ponca City, is representing the plaintiffs.
“These are three women with impeccable credibility,” she said.
In court documents, the plaintiffs’ allegations include McMillian:
• Frequently permitted sexually-explicit e-mails to be sent to bank employees;
• Would often describe the quality of female customers’ and applicants’ figures, using derogatory and sexually-explicit slurs and jokes;
• Placed his hand on a female employee’s thigh and said he was measuring how short her skirt was;
• Frequently encouraged employees to have a naked swimming party;
• Frequently joked with a female employee about exchanging sexual favors.
Young said the plaintiffs “were never directly sexually harassed but were exposed to a sexually-charged workplace” on a daily basis.
According to the petition, “The sexually-hostile environment was severe and pervasive enough to be perceived as hostile by the female employees, including plaintiffs.”
The allegations were investigated by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. McMillian said “the bank and I cooperated fully.”
“The EEOC said there was no cause to believe that any federal statutes had been violated,” McMillian said.
Young countered that does not mean the suit is baseless.
“The EEOC is an administrative procedure where not once did it interview my clients or other witnesses,” Young said in an e-mail. “There are plenty of cases denied by the EEOC that go forward to successful resolution within the judicial system. The right to sue in court is evident that the EEOC does not have the last word.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Donald Worthington, but Young said the suit will “probably” be moved to federal court. She said the suit was filed in Payne County because the local court would be more convenient. The federal courthouse is in Oklahoma City.
“We have full confidence in the Payne County court system,” Young said.
McMillian said he is being represented by Kieran Maye of Miller Dollarhide in Oklahoma City.
Maye is named in the plaintiffs’ petition, which states Maye was retained to provide sexual harassment seminars to bank employees. According to the petition, “At the end of the seminar, Maye told the employees that if they ever thought about bringing a sexual harassment claim against the bank, he would be all over them like ‘ugly on ape’ and would make their lives very uncomfortable.”
Asked if the suit would affect his role as mayor, McMillian said, “I hope not.”