MBN reveals sexual harassment suit settled for $25,000
The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former female employee for $25,000.
The agreement was made public Thursday after a federal judge approved MBN's motion to unseal the agreement. That comes after the Mississippi Department of Homeland Security settled a lawsuit for $75,000.
Then-MBN employee Mary Katherine Sullivan filed her federal lawsuit in September 2015 against MBN and deputy director Mike Perkins.
Sullivan's attorney, G. Morgan Holder of Gulfport, said she took a job with a law enforcement agency on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In late June, the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate after the parties reached a settlement agreement.
Governor Phil Bryant says it's time for sexist behavior in state agencies to stop.
In a recent interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Bryant was livid about the MBN case and another case involving the Department of Homeland Security.
"It stops here. It’ll stop at this office going forward with all executive agencies, with any power and influence I have over other agencies that are in the state," Bryant said in the interview.. "We have to take responsibility if things are going wrong and obviously there are things that have gone wrong, and what I can do now is help remedy those, but make sure people understand this better not happen again. And I think they’ve got that message. If they have not you’ll see some career-altering decisions that will be made."
DPS settled for $75,000 with Penny Nichols Corn, a female employee claiming sexual discrimination and retaliation by Director Rusty Barnes at the Department of Homeland Security. She said she was passed over for promotion to deputy director of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security because of her sex. She claimed that after she complained, her right to drive a DPS vehicle to and from work was revoked while two men who worked under her were still allowed to drive theirs.
Barnes resigned after the settlement, and attempts to reach him by The Clarion-Ledger have been unsuccessful.
Sullivan's lawsuit accused MBN of sex discrimination, sex harassment and retaliation. Sullivan began working at MBN as an administrative assistant in 2015. She was moved to the intelligence division in 2007. In 2014, Sullivan said she was hired as a special projects officer, a position with the published annual salary range of $36,176.62 to $63,309.
Sullivan said despite an impeccable personnel record, and a dramatic increase in responsibility, she was refused a salary above the minimum salary range.
She said in the lawsuit that throughout her employment, she had been subjected and/or exposed to sexual comments, dirty jokes and sexual propositions by Perkins.
“Despite his leadership position, Perkins’ office at MBN headquarters is conspicuously adorned with a certificate he received from sexual harassment training with the word failed stamped in large print. The plaintiff and other female employees have seen this certificate on numerous occasions while conducting business at headquarters,” the lawsuit said.
Also, Sullivan’s lawsuit said Perkins, in her presence, would rank potential female employees he was interviewing for employment with a sexually motivated number system, with the higher the number the more physically attractive to him. She said it was widely known at MBN as the “Perkins Scale.”
Perkins retired Aug. 4. He couldn't be reached for comment about the lawsuit.
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.