County, city cleared of dispatcher’s complaint

The city of Columbus and the Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office have been cleared of a human rights discrimination complaint filed by a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher.
In a final report dated March 14, based on interviews, documents and text messages, investigator Jennifer Conwell found “no reasonable cause” to believe the county or the city unlawfully discriminated against the dispatcher, who claims former sheriff’s deputy and former Columbus police officer Paul Caraway sexually harassed and assaulted her.
The dispatcher needed to prove that the county and Stillwater County Sheriff Cliff Brophy “knew or should have known about the harassment,” Conwell wrote.
Caraway was the dispatcher’s co-worker and not a supervisor prior to being hired by the city in February 2008.
Based on the documented actions taken by the county between July 3 and July 6 of 2015, when the dispatcher reported being sexually harassed and assaulted, Conwell concluded that the county “took immediate and appropriate corrective action.”
Columbus Police Chief Bill Pronovost put Caraway on administrative leave on July 6, 2015, and requested a criminal investigation be done of the dispatcher’s report by the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
Because the dispatcher is a county employee, the city of Columbus and Pronovost “are not proper parties to this claim,” Conwell said.

CLAIMS VERSUS EVIDENCE
According to Conwell’s report, the dispatcher cited two incidents in her Human Rights Bureau complaint prior to 2015. The first involved Caraway allegedly putting ketchup packets down the dispatcher’s blouse and pants in 2007. The dispatcher claims she reported the incident to dispatch supervisor Kathy Jess and that Jess told the dispatcher she would handle the matter.
Jess, however, told Conwell that the dispatcher never made a complaint. There was also no documentation of such a complaint being made at the Sheriff’s Office.
The second incident of harassment cited by the dispatcher occurred in 2009 when Caraway allegedly made sexual remarks about the dispatcher in front of Columbus Police Sgt. Gary Timm in the city police gym.
According to Conwell’s report, the city of Columbus showed evidence that Pronovost “immediately brought Caraway in and reprimanded him for the behavior.”
County officials said they were not notified of the dispatcher’s second complaint, Conwell wrote.
Conwell noted that the 2007 and 2009 incidents were “cases of stupid, juvenile behavior that, while offensive, do not rise to the level of severe or pervasive and, alone, would not constitute sexual harassment” under the Human Rights Bureau. Furthermore, Conwell said, “the early behavior is not part of a continuing pattern of harassment.”
The dispatcher claimed in her complaint that Caraway’s sexual harassment stepped up in the fall of 2014 after she and her husband separated. She also claimed that the county should have known about his alleged harassment because of the 2007 and 2009 incidents and because “Caraway is widely known to think of himself as a ladies man.”
After interviewing Pronovost, Brophy, dispatchers, deputies and city police officers, Conwell concluded that the dispatcher “is correct in saying that Caraway is widely known to be a womanizer,” but “they all state that they had no idea that Caraway would engage in the behavior that [the dispatcher] has alleged or that Caraway would engage in non-consensual sexual behavior.”

ASSAULT CLAIMS
On July 3, 2015 around 10 p.m., the dispatcher told dispatch supervisor Jennifer Siegfried that Caraway allegedly had exposed himself to her in the dispatch break room in May and the dispatch rest room in June, and that he continued to make sexual suggestions to her after that.
By that time, Pronovost had already left for vacation and was out of cell phone range for the Fourth of July weekend. The dispatcher’s night shift and Caraway’s day shift overlapped by two hours, creating some concern about what might happen over the weekend.
The dispatcher stated in her complaint “that she was very frightened all weekend long and had begged her dispatch supervisor to not have to work and face Caraway on those days,” Conwell reported.
However, Conwell’s investigation ended with a different conclusion.
“Text message records from the dispatch supervisor, however, show that [the dispatcher] and the supervisor were in frequent contact all weekend long, and [the dispatcher] had actually hoped that Caraway would come in and talk dirty to her so that she could record the conversation and have proof of his offensive behavior,” Conwell wrote.
Brophy said he didn’t learn about the dispatcher’s July 3 complaint to her supervisor until July 7, but Undersheriff Chip Kem sent text messages to the dispatcher on July 4 to see if she was OK and sent a deputy to the dispatch room for several hours on July 5. And in accordance with the dispatcher’s request, Kem did not tell the deputy or anyone else about the dispatcher’s July 3 complaint.
Pronovost returned to Columbus on Sunday evening and spoke with the dispatcher, Kem and a victim witness advocate on Monday morning.
“Chief Pronovost immediately called Caraway and placed him on paid administrative leave pending an investigation of the report,” Conwell wrote.
That same day, Pronovost requested an investigation by the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation, and Caraway was never allowed in the dispatch area again.
Conwell did note that based on “a preponderance of evidence,” she concluded that the dispatcher had shown that “she was subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace.”
“The conduct [the dispatcher] complained of was so severe that I find it altered her working conditions and created an abusive working environment,” Conwell said in reference to the 2015 incidents.

RELALIATION ALLEGATIONS
The dispatcher also claims in her complaint that the county “retaliated against her for engaging in protected activity when they refused to provide her time off to deal with the stress following her report of sexual harassment,” Conwell wrote.
Conwell, however, found that the dispatcher was granted all her vacation requests, except for a day in August due to scheduling conflicts, along with 59.5 hours of sick leave.
Conwell also noted that while the city of Columbus put Caraway on paid administrative leave, the dispatcher “has no legal justification to expect that her employer, the county, should put her on paid administrative leave following her report of sexual harassment.”
The dispatcher “fails to establish a prima facie case of retaliation,” Conwell concluded.