Treasurer settles for $30,000 in ex-worker’s civil-rights suit

The state’s treasurer has opted to settle a federal lawsuit filed against him by a former employee from his time as the Saline County clerk.

An attorney for Republican Treasurer Dennis Milligan said Friday that his client reached a $30,000 settlement with Marilyn McDaniel, who claimed she was fired from her position as an assistant in Milligan’s clerk’s office because of her disability and in retaliation for a complaint she had filed.

Milligan’s attorney, David Fuqua, said the case was to go to trial June 1 but officially will be closed next week after both sides complete their dismissal paperwork.

McDaniel’s attorney, Luther Sutter, confirmed that the two sides had agreed to a $30,000 settlement.

“Ms. McDaniel is pleased to have been vindicated,” Sutter said. “And we hope that Mr. Milligan will become more sensitive to people with disabilities and their families.”

McDaniel has narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that makes sleep difficult to control and can result in sudden bouts of sleep during daytime hours.

Milligan fired the parttime employee in December 2011 after she’d been employed for about a year.

In December 2012, McDaniel filed suit in federal court, accusing Milligan of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Arkansas Civil Rights Act.

McDaniel argued that Milligan’s office refused to accommodate her special needs and then fired her for asking for the accommodation.

Milligan argued he could not have violated her rights because he was never told about her narcolepsy and was never asked to accommodate it. He argued McDaniel was fired for poor performance and insubordination.

The former county clerk was successful in removing himself as an individual from the case but lost his motion for summary judgment against him in his official capacity.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker of the Eastern District of Arkansas denied Milligan’s attempt to have the case thrown out on jurisdictional grounds.

The parties met the next day and agreed to the settlement.

The suit was preceded by one filed by Milligan against McDaniel in April 2012 in which Milligan accused McDaniel of stealing a document from an office fax that was of great “sentimental” value to Milligan. McDaniel denied taking the document and claimed the suit was retaliatory. That case has been dormant since late 2012 but is still open, according to state court records.

Milligan was not in his office Friday and did not return a message for comment. Office staff members said he’d return to work Tuesday.

Milligan is in the middle of another federal lawsuit with another former employee of

the Saline County clerk’s office.

Ronda DePriest, who was let go from her position at the office when Milligan took over at the start of 2011, claims she was fired for not supporting Milligan’s candidacy.

After having her suit dismissed in federal court by Baker, her lawsuit against Milligan is back in Saline County Circuit Court.

She contends she was fired because she wouldn’t support Milligan’s candidacy and because she was a woman. Her position was filled “by a lesser qualified male,” and she was not allowed to take a lower position in the office, according to her complaint.

Sutter, who represents DePriest as well, said Milligan’s behavior has invited the litigation.

Since taking office in January, Milligan has faced allegations of nepotism, and a staff member has been accused of improperly promoting Milligan’s 2014 campaign while working for a nonpartisan, nonprofit charity.

On March 13, Milligan signed an agreement with the attorney general’s office to pay a $1,000 penalty for breaking state law by hiring his first cousin to a $63,000-per-year position in his office.

He claimed he thought the state law that barred nepotism applied to only immediate family members and agreed to reimburse the state the $6,941 earned by his cousin while he worked there illegally.

On April 29, Milligan said he would make a donation to a charity that once employed his chief of staff for work he did for Milligan’s campaign while working there.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network employed Milligan’s current deputy chief of staff Jason Brady. Earlier this year, the Arkansas News Bureau reported a story detailing emails Brady sent in 2013 and 2014 that showed the nonprofit employee was doing campaign work on the nonpartisan group’s email account.