Lawsuits against MPD claim gender discrimination, retaliation
Alleging gender discrimination and retaliation from the Maui Police Department chief and his former deputy, three female employees — two officers and one police department administrator — recently filed separate lawsuits in 2nd Circuit Court against the department. Lt. Audra Sellers, Sgt. Ka Lae O Ka Ena Brown and Melissa Magonigle, who is in charge of human resources and budget and finance for MPD, are also alleging violation of the whistleblower’s protection act, saying there was retaliation for reporting illegal practices at MPD. The women, in their separate lawsuits filed on Jan. 30, detailed the treatment they’ve received in various incidents under Police Chief John Pelletier and former Deputy Chief Charles Hank III. Hank retired late last year. MPD declined to comment on the lawsuits. Joseph Rosenbaum, an Oahu-based attorney representing the women, said in an email Tuesday afternoon: “These brave women want there to be accountability at the top of MPD for the violations of policies and the violation of their rights as women in the workplace.” The women are also among a group of county employees who have had their complaints against Pelletier and members of his executive staff reviewed by the Maui Police Commission last year. Those reviews so far have not resulted in any disciplinary action against the chief. Third-party investigators charged with reviewing the cases have come to mixed conclusions, saying in some instances that Pelletier likely violated the Maui County Violence in the Workplace policy by “yelling and swearing” during a meeting and that some of his actions also likely violated the MPD Code of Conduct as well as the Employee Handbook. But other investigations showed some allegations could not be substantiated. Sellers details in her lawsuit that the Community Relations Section she had commanded was “collapsed” and its four officers reassigned to other jobs after she filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against the chief, former deputy, a staff member and a former chief on Jan. 27, 2022 regarding what she said were illegal posts by an employee on social media and the response by Sellers’ superiors to her reporting of the issue. The section was reinstated on April 1, 2022, after Pelletier met with union officials and agreed the moves weren’t done correctly, but the lieutenant reported she was told to do only a portion of her job duties, according to a third-party investigation of a complaint by Sellers. Sellers also says in the recent lawsuit that Pelletier made physical threats of violence and that Hank told “blatant lies” about her in front of executive staff and some command staff after she left a meeting. Brown also alleges discrimination and retaliation for supporting Sellers’ complaints. In the suit, Brown also said issues arose after the Community Relations Section she was in was collapsed. Brown had asked to take non-patrol positions. She said that two male officers from the collapsed Community Relations Section were granted receiving desk positions, which falls under the Support Services, the same bureau that community relations fell under. But Brown was told that Hank had said she needed to choose a patrol position. “It’s common knowledge within the MPD that it is degrading for an officer to be removed from non-patrol positions to patrol,” the lawsuit said. It adds that MPD reassigned someone from patrol to do the job Brown had in the Community Relations Section. Magonigle, who spent 24 years in the Army and 19 years at MPD, said she “had never experienced such a lashing out,” in describing one of the incidents which occurred at an April 13, 2022, group meeting with Pelletier and five men, in which Pelletier “yelled and cursed” at Magonigle. Pelletier had mentioned a job position Magonigle advertised in the office. She said she did not understand why Pelletier “was so angry to yell and curse like that, almost like in a blind angry rage,” nor why she deserved “to be spoken to in this manner.” Rosenbaum said the three women still work at MPD. The women are seeking various damages with amounts to be proven at trial, along with attorney’s fees and costs of the suit.