Grand Traverse County, as well as County Sheriff Michael Shea, are named as defendants in a lawsuit filed Thursday by a former corrections officer at the county jail. The suit, which is seeking a trial with damages to be determined by a jury, alleges that Plaintiff Rachel Bender was a victim of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination during her one-year stint with the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Department.

Bender was hired as a corrections officer for the Sheriff’s Department in August 2023, and started her position the following month. Per the lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court on January 9, Bender “suffers from anxiety, depression, and panic episodes” that may, “during a flareup…affect her ability to think clearly and function in social and public settings.” While the suit says the condition is “normally well-managed” and that “absent extreme duress, flareups are rare,” it also alleges that the work environment at the county jail was so toxic that it ultimately caused Bender to have multiple panic attacks that affected her work.

Specifically, the suit states that Bender “immediately observed an environment rife with sexually offensive comments and behavior” after beginning her employment at the jail. In one cited example, a male corrections officer, Addison Kennedy, allegedly “placed photographs of a woman's face on multiple hand sanitizer dispensers, which was designed to imply post-fellatio oral evacuation by the pictured woman when the dispensers would trigger.” In another example, a second male corrections officer, Elijah Mleko, allegedly “threw a peanut down in front of Plaintiff and then loudly commented ‘Look! I busted a nut!’”

“Plaintiff found this highly sexualized environment to be extremely offensive. And, she found that it distracted her from her duties and negatively impacted her performance,” the suit states.

The lawsuit continues by noting that Bender took administrative leave “early in her employment,” causing “ill-feeling towards her by the other corrections officers.” Specifically, the complaint accuses Kennedy of starting a rumor that Bender was carrying on a sexual relationship with one of the superiors at the jail.

According to the lawsuit, Bender first “formally complained about the ongoing sex-based harassment” on July 2, 2024. The complaint prompted a meeting between Bender, Shelly Schettmann, a union delegate with the Policeman’s Labor Counsel (to which Bender belongs), and LeeAnne Skiff, a representative from the county’s HR department. The suit states that Skiff “agreed that all of this was highly inappropriate and agreed to take action to curtail it,” but alleges that nothing was done to penalize the perpetrators or curb their behavior.

The suit goes on to allege retaliation against Bender in the wake of her formal complaint, including a claim that other officers disclosed personal details about her marital status and health information to inmates at the jail. These patterns continued, the suit claims, after July 23, when Bender “submitted documentation from her physician indicating that the harassment from the other officers was impacting her mental health and requested, as an accommodation, that she be reassigned away from the harassers.” Per the suit, no such accommodations were provided.

On August 9, Bender reportedly “transmitted correspondence” to the Sheriff’s Corrections Division and the county’s HR department detailing how she was “being exposed to an unlawful hostile work environment based upon her sex and retaliation for opposing same in violation of both Title VII and the Michigan Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act.”

That communication allegedly only led to further retaliation, including a six-month extension of Bender’s probationary period, dated August 21. Bender’s employment with the sheriff’s department was then terminated on August 30, with her supervisors citing incidents on two dates – July 25 and August 1 – on which she claims to have had to leave work early due to panic attacks.

While Shea is not directly named in any of the specific allegations cited in Bender’s suit, the lawsuit reasons that he, as the head of the department, was the “ultimate decision maker” in the handling of the situation. The lawsuit also notes that the the sheriff’s department “does not exist as a separate legal county” and is “simply an agent of the county.” This structure, the suit reasons, makes the county and Shea “joint employers” of the plaintiff – and therefore, “jointly and severally liable” for the alleged discrimination and harassment.

Reached Friday afternoon, Shea told The Ticker he “would not be able to comment on potential litigation.”

The suit, which was filed by attorney Collin Nyeholt of the Okemos-based Law Offices of Casey D. Conklin, ultimately accuses the defendants of violating Bender’s rights under both the United States Constitution and Michigan state law. Bender is seeking a jury trial, with damages “in an amount determined appropriate by the jury.”