Second lawsuit targets Mercer County warden over sex claims
TRENTON » Warden Charles Ellis is apparently a breast man.
Already under investigation by Mercer County prosecutors, the embattled jail boss has been hit with more sexual harassment allegations, including some which could be criminal, in a lawsuit filed against the county by another corrections officer.
This is the second complaint brought against the county implicating Warden Ellis and Deputy Warden Phyllis Oliver.
The woman, who was hired as a CO in 1994, brought the lawsuit the same week of an explosive complaint, first reported by The Trentonian, alleging the warden and his second-in-command, Oliver, wanted a threesome.
The CO claims Ellis repeatedly asked her out on dates, groped her, told her he liked “large breasts” and remarked about her “shiny lips,” according to the lawsuit filed by Drake Bearden, an attorney at Costello & Mains.
That law firm is the same one which has filed three complaints blasting former airport boss Stanley Patterson for alleged sexual misconduct.
The corrections officer worked without incident until 2016, the suit says. But in March that year, Ellis started cracking sexually suggestive comments, she contends.
The head honcho at the big house in Hopewell Township asked the corrections officer whether her husband was “big,” referring to his man parts, the lawsuit said.
At a retirement party at the jail facilities in April 2016, Ellis apparently grabbed the woman’s jacket and slid his hand on her breasts. Pleased by what
felt, the suit contends, he commented on the woman’s rack.
“Damn, I didn’t know you were holding like that,” Ellis allegedly told the CO.
Later that night, Ellis told the woman he like big breasts, the suit said.
Other times, Ellis suggested to the woman he wanted to see how she looked “outside your uniform,” her lawyers contend, and how he wanted to “have fun” with her.
Ellis was also docked in the lawsuit for suggesting to the woman, “You didn’t come here to get no man.”
The lawsuit stated the CO “never reacted in kind to any of the sexually harassing comments, or sexually inappropriate action by Ellis.”
And for that, the lawsuit says, Ellis and second-in-command Oliver got back at her for turning down his sexual advances.
She was written up for taking a sick day, denied vacation and suspended for five days, the suit said.
She had other vacation requests denied, the suit says, and those days were given to “junior” officers.
She complained to human resources in August 2017, but “nothing was done about her complaint, no investigation was conducted and the retaliation and harassment continued,” the lawsuit said.
In November, Ellis reportedly removed a plastic chair and heater from the woman’s work area, the suit said.
She believed Ellis took them “to frustrate and intimidate” her, her lawyers say.
The suit comes at a bad time for Ellis, who is under criminal investigation along with Oliver over allegations they have mismanaged the jail, retaliated against workers and abused overtime.
Another lawsuit brought by a corrections nurse and her partner, a lieutenant at the jail, accused the wardens of propositioning the nurse for a pajama sex party.
The woman said she was also with Oliver when she bought her boss porno flicks and allowed him to watch X-rated films in the basement of her home, stoking the embers that the two are involved a passionate romance which has been rumored for years.
Ellis and Oliver – through a county spokeswoman – have denied allegations they have been intimate with each other.
Oliver has gone so far as to consult an attorney about suing accusers for making “false” allegations.
Meanwhile, talk continues at the jail. The word was Oliver hasn’t been at work this week and isn’t expected back any time soon.
When spokesman Julie Willmot was asked to address this, she emailed a statement that the county doesn’t “comment on personnel matters specific to an employee. All full-time employees are entitled to paid time off.”