Federal lawsuits by terminated county jail employees mount

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A former Allegheny County Jail guard has filed sexual harassment allegations against a onetime supervisor who himself has a pending suit alleging he was unfairly discharged after two other women filed complaints against him.

Tanisha Ramsey, who was terminated in 2016, sued the county in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, saying she was subjected to harassment by Robert Bytner, a former major at the lockup.

Ms. Ramsey was hired in June 2015. While still in training in August, she said, Mr. Bytner began making unwelcomesexual advances.

Among her claims is that he sent her inappropriate texts, asked her for photos in her bikini and invited her to his house to go swimming withhim.

The harassment continued until Mr. Bytner, 56, of Bethel Park, was fired in November 2015, according to the complaint.

In December he filed a federal lawsuit alleging that after Deputy Warden Monica Long accused him of harassing her, Warden Orlando Harper began “randomly contacting female officers who worked with Bytner to see if any of them had complaints.” When two did, he was fired, he said. His suit claims the real reason he was fired was because he’s white and over 55.

Ms. Ramsey said the county was “fully aware” of Mr. Bytner’s propensity to harass female employees, including Ms. Long, but allowed him to stay in his position and even investigate misconduct claims.

Ms. Ramsey said that after she filed a complaint against him in October 2015, she was placed on phone duty.

She said she was told that if she wanted to return to regular duty, she would have to write a statement saying she was “OK with her work environment.”

She wasn’t, she said, because Mr. Bytner was harassing her, so she refused to sign the statement.

After he was fired, she said she was subjected to further harassment by unspecified people who told her that she was “just trying to find a sugar daddy” in regards to Mr. Bytner.

She said the hostility continued until she was forced to resign in June 2016.

Her suit is seeking unspecified damages.

The county said it does not comment on pending litigation.

The Ramsey suit is the third recent complaint filed in the past two months by a former jail employee alleging improper termination.

Aside from those filed by Ms. Ramsey and Mr. Bytner, Stacey Stubenrauch of Baldwin Borough, who started working as a corrections officer in 2006, said in a complaint filed last month that she used the Family and Medical Leave Act to take time off for various ailments. She claims she was fired in 2016 in retaliation for using those FMLA benefits.