A federal judge has ruled a New Orleans Police Department official’s sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit can continue.
In an August 12 order, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier denied the Regional Transit Authority of New Orleans’ motion to dismiss the case filed by Shandrell M.J. Privott, who accused a supervisor of sexual harassment.
According to court filings, Privott has been employed by the New Orleans Police Department since 2002 and is currently serving as a sergeant. From December 2019 until March 17, 2022, she was assigned to serve as a Transit Police Unit Commander with RTA. She served in this role until RTA asked NOPD to terminate her assignment and replace her with someone else.
During the course of her assignment, Privott claims RTA Chief Security Officer Robert Hickman sexually harassed her over a period of months, “routinely propositioning her for sex.” When she complained about the harassment, Privott says she was a victim of retaliation and sexual discrimination before being wrongfully terminated.
The RTA seeked to dismiss the claims against it, claiming Privott never was an RTA employee. RTA describes Privott as a “loan” employee, while she characterizes her time with RTA as joint employment.
“The RTA asserts that because it is a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana, plaintiff cannot establish liability under either the single employer or joint employer test, and therefore the claims against the RTA must be dismissed as a matter of law,” the order states. “Plaintiff does not dispute that the RTA is a political subdivision; however, plaintiff asserts that even though she used the phrase ‘jointly employed’ in her complaint, ‘she was, in fact, employed by the RTA in the traditional sense of the word.’”
To determine this issue, the court says it has to focus on whether the alleged employer has the right to hire and fire the employee, the right to supervise the employee and the right to set the employee’s work schedule.
“Plaintiff alleges that she was supervised by RTA’s Chief of Security, Robert Hickman, her alleged sexual harasser,” the court order states. “Mr. Hickman assigned her tasks, and she received her day-to-day instructions from him. She reported to work at the RTA’s office and used an RTA email account.
“It was the RTA who asked the NOPD to end plaintiff’s assignment as Transit Police Unit Commander. Plaintiff was also issued an RTA vehicle, and she was paid an hourly wage by the RTA on top of the hourly wages she earned through the NOPD.”
The court says the question “is essentially an issue of semantics over the use of the word ‘joint.’”
“Plaintiff in this case was loaned to the RTA, and during the period of her service there she was supervised, paid and then terminated by the RTA,” Barbier wrote. “The court does not need to resort to the aggregation tests suggested by the RTA which would be inapplicable to governmental entities.
“When looking past plaintiff’s misplaced legal conclusion of ‘joint’ employment her complaint, plaintiff’s allegations satisfy … for the purposes of this motion to dismiss. Likewise, this court will not dismiss plaintiff’s state law discrimination claims.”
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 23-cv-1848