MABEN — The former town clerk is suing the mayor and three members of the board of aldermen for offenses ranging from sex discrimination to retaliatory firing to interfering with her ability to find a new job.
Natasha Rose filed suit April 13 in United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in Aberdeen against the Town of Maben, Mayor Larry Pruitt, and Alderpersons Marlene Thomas, Robert Herd and Pat Harpole. She is represented by Joel Dillard of Jackson.
Rose worked as town clerk from February 2016 until Sept. 1, 2020, when she claims she resigned to avoid termination. According to the complaint, which represents one side of a legal argument, the tides at work began to turn against her after a Jan. 7, 2020, board of aldermen meeting.
Rose alleges a motion was made at that meeting to hire Charlie Miller as a police officer, but Pruitt said he was “too old” for the job. Alderman Rufus Harris Sr. told Pruitt that was age discrimination, and Rose recorded the exchange in the minutes. She alleges that after the meeting Town Attorney Walter Zinn told her to remove the reference, but she refused.
Miller later sued the town for age discrimination, and Rose argues in the lawsuit that she spoke truthfully to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In June of that year, Rose alleges she began to suffer sexual harassment at the hands of bonding agent Patricia Ann Yates, who accused Rose of having an affair with her husband. Yates emailed Rose’s husband with the allegations, and threatened her, including a July 31 threat to run her car into City Hall. Rose filed a police report, as well as going to the mayor and aldermen.
Rose alleges the aldermen refused to allow her to present evidence of the harassment at an Aug. 4, 2020, meeting, but they did vote to remove Yates as a bonding agent. However, Yates was reinstated after Rose told Pruitt that she would continue to tell the truth about the age discrimination case.
On Aug. 18, Rose claims the board voted to suspend her, claiming she had made false statements against Yates. She argues she was suspended because she is a woman and cites several cases of male employees committing “actual misconduct,” including “buying drugs while on duty and in a city vehicle,” and another male employee who “cost the city $8,365 due to his use of his city phone for personal streaming video. … If Ms. Rose was a man, the Board would not have suspended her.”
Rose claims that “on or around Sept. 1, 2020,” she resigned to avoid being fired, but her trouble with the city didn’t stop there.
After leaving her position, Rose argues she contacted the state auditor’s office to report financial misconduct by the fire chief and deputy clerk.
“After learning about these communications, the Board voted against completing Ms. Rose’s PERS retirement funds paperwork,” the complaint alleges.
When Rose began looking for a new job, she alleges Pruitt “… falsely told Ms. Rose’s prospective employers that (she) had been terminated for stealing from the city. Mr. Pruitt also falsely told others Ms. Rose had ‘tampered’ with past elections.”
Because of these allegations, she claims she has had difficulty finding another job.
Rose is asking for reinstatement, back pay, lost employment benefits, compensatory damages for emotional distress, compensation for financial damage, punitive damages, civil fines against the mayor and three alderpersons and costs and attorney’s fees.
Neither Dillard nor Zinn returned a Dispatch phone call seeking comment by press time. The town has not yet filed a response to the complaint.
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