Dispatcher from ex-cop harassment incident demanding jury trial

A Stillwater County dispatcher who had filed a human rights discrimination complaint after claiming she had been harassed, retaliated against and that her supervisors ignored her pleas for help is now seeking a jury trial.
The dispatcher recently had her discrimination claim denied following a state Montana
Human Rights Bureau investigation. A state criminal investigation yielded the same result.
The request for a jury trial was made in a June 3 filing in 22nd Judicial District Court. No further court action has been scheduled.
The Stillwater County News has chosen to not identify the dispatcher.
At a hearing last Thursday, Judge Blair Jones granted the dispatcher’s attorney access to the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation Bureau’s investigative file concerning the incident.
However, the parties involved stipulated that nothing could be done with that information without first coming back to court and filing for a court order.
The petition was filed on Jan. 13.
The request for a trial stems from the dispatcher’s claims that she was a subject of sexual harassment and assault that occurred primarily in 2015 by then Columbus Police Sgt. Paul Caraway.
Caraway was suspended on July 6, 2015, after the dispatcher’s concerns were aired.
In a final report dated March 14, based on interviews, documents and text messages, Montana
Human Rights Bureau investigator Jennifer Conwell found “no reasonable cause” to believe the county or the city unlawfully discriminated against the dispatcher. 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). Caraway was fired in November 2015 on charges of misconduct and dereliction of duty.
Because the dispatcher is a county employee, the city of Columbus and Pronovost “are not proper parties to this claim,” Conwell said.
The dispatcher’s demand for a jury trial names Caraway, Stillwater County and the City of Columbus as defendants, as well as John Does 1-5.