Former Danbury City Hall Employee Files Lawsuit Claiming Racism
Former City of Danbury employee Marlene Moore-Callands is claiming she was treated differently at work because of her race.
According to the News Times, the City of Danbury has vehemently denied Moore-Calland's claim. She had worked for the city since 1988 but in 2017 as she was working in the Permit Center, a business owner brought up the subject of NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. The two of them disagreed over whether the players' actions should be deemed unpatriotic.
The lawsuit contends that when Moore-Callands pointed out that the conversation was unsuitable for the workplace, the business owner/contractor told her she "should go back to Africa." She then complained to her manager who she claims never addressed her complaint.
She then went to Permit Center Director, Sean Hearty making it clear that no action had been taken regarding her complaint. She claims that there was also no response from Hearty about her complaint. As part of her lawsuit, she claimed that Hearty told her she is "from the projects and should be used to these things."
Moore-Callands officially filed a complaint about the chain of events and conversations that took place in the work environment with the state Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities in January of 2018. Danbury city attorneys claim that there were many efforts to remediate the situation and that Moore-Callands was herself responsible for creating the hostile work environment. She is seeking damages for her termination.