Elected County Official in Florida Loses Workplace Harassment Trial

Tampa, FLA sensational workplace harassment case involving a public official and his subordinate in the Sunshine State was recently resolved with a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff. However, it is not known if the defendant involved with the alleged sexual harassment in the workplace litigation will appeal.

An editorial appearing September 16th in the St. Petersburg Times advises against an appeal for both financial and moralistic reasons. The newspaper also suggests that state commissioners need to 'plug a hole in county policies that enables an opportunist like (Kevin) White to take advantage of an employee."

White, the elected commissioner of Hillsborough County, was accused by a former aide of sexual harassment. The plaintiff, Alyssa Ogden (then 22) claimed that after she continued to refuse the 44-year-old public official's repeated advances, the commissioner fired her in 2007.

Earlier this summer a trial jury awarded Ogden $75,000 in damages.

A Hostile Work Environment Bordering on the Sensational

According to an August 30th summary of the trial appearing in the St. Petersburg Times much of the trial focused on a single workplace harassment allegation. In this case, White was accused of luring his new aide—then just days into the job—to Atlanta for a business trip, only to attempt to share her hotel bed.

White not only denied the allegation, but also claimed during the trial that Ogden's presence in Atlanta was at the request of another man, identified as C. Blythe Andrews Jr., chairman of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin. White was to meet the 77-year-old Andrews in Atlanta and testified that he believed Andrews harbored a romantic interest in Ogden.

Andrews, at trial, denied the claim.

In its editorial the St. Petersburg Times reported that aides to county commissioners are not covered by protections available to those in the civil service. And even though the legal representatives for the defendant faulted the plaintiff for not reporting the workplace harassment until after she was fired, the trial judge assigned to the case took exception to that stance, noting that political hires like Ogden have no opportunity to protect themselves from the "unfettered whim and caprice" of their elected employers.

"The county did not protect this employee when it mattered, and it should not compound the damage by contesting her $75,000 jury award," the St. Petersburg Times wrote in its editorial of September 16th. "The county should forget about spending tens of thousands of additional dollars to appeal. It should be turning its legal firepower on White, not the victim, and insist he pay her damages and the county's legal bills."