SJC TOP OFFICER ACCUSED OF USE OF RACIAL SLUR
Subordinate files complaint
The Supreme Judicial Court’s top officer has been accused by a female subordinate in a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint of calling her a racial slur.
The MCAD complaint comes after an internal investigation earlier this year by the SJC found Misty Baker’s claim against the SJC’s chief court officer, Robert Vitale, was unsubstantiated.
Baker, 33, a veteran associate court officer, filed the discrimination charge Monday, according to a copy of the four-page document released yesterday by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice.
She said in her complaint she did not hear Vitale utter the word himself, but rather, that it was relayed to her by another court officer in late June.
Baker said in a statement through the committee that “as a black woman, I was professionally humiliated, personally embarrassed, and upset.”
Vitale did not immediately respond to requests for comment or for the name of an attorney to contact.
Jennifer Donahue, the SJC’s spokeswoman, said in a statement, “As soon as the Supreme Judicial Court became aware of this serious allegation, the Justices appointed private counsel, who conducted a thorough internal investigation. By statute, the Chief Justice is responsible for the discipline of SJC court officers. After careful review of the evidence that arose from the investigation, Chief Justice Gants found that the Chief Court Officer did not make the alleged racial slur.”
Vitale, who earns $104,955 as the SJC’s chief court officer, is accused by Baker of making the remark while she was filling in
‘I will not be intimidated or bullied into inaction. I am coming forward with my discrimination complaint to inspire others to do the same.’ — MISTY BAKER Associate court officer
at the SJC on June 27, providing coverage at the Somerset Street security entrance.
Vitale “was upset about my work performance and instructed me to complete an incident report about it. I did not believe I had been treated fairly, so I filed a grievance with my union, as well,” Baker’s MCAD complaint states.
Two days later, she said, “I learned that Vitale had called me a (racial slur) loudly enough for others to hear. When I learned of this incident and that it had spread widely among the court officers in many of the trial courts, I was highly humiliated and upset.”
Baker said she received a letter from the SJC on Oct. 11 informing her that Chief Justice Ralph Gants did not find Vitale made the comment. Days later, at a disciplinary hearing on Vitale’s unspecified objection to her job performance, Baker told MCAD she accepted a one-day unpaid suspension, “unwilling to risk the possibility of losing more pay, which I need to support my young daughter.”
In her statement yesterday, Baker said, “I will not be intimidated or bullied into inaction. I am coming forward with my discrimination complaint to inspire others to do the same.”