Kauai County paid $120,000 to settle a claim by a former prosecutor who said she was racially harassed because she is Caucasian, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Thursday.
The county reached a settlement with former Deputy Prosecutor Shannon Weigel, 27. Weigel’s payment is the highest of three reached involving claims filed by former employees under Kauai Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho.
The two other employees, Erin Wilson, who filed a racial discrimination claim, and Jocelyn Barriga, who filed a gender discrimination claim, received $75,000 and $28,000, respectively. Both worked as victim witness counselors.
Iseri-Carvalho said Thursday the allegations directed at her by Weigel were fabricated and discrimination claims by Wilson and Barriga false. She added that the settlements are politically driven and that all the claims were settled without consultation with the prosecutor’s office.
"All these claims are just surfacing before the general election," said Iseri-Carvalho, who is up for re-election.
She said she first heard about the settlements in a debate more than two weeks ago with Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar, who wants her job.
Weigel worked as a deputy prosecuting attorney from late 2009 to early 2010. After she left the prosecutor’s office, she filed the racial harassment claim with the EEOC.
Weigel said Iseri-Carvalho made disparaging comments against her while at a party outside of the office in November 2009. Iseri-Carvalho told Weigel that she needed to assimilate more into the local culture and to date a local boy instead of her then-boyfriend, who is also Caucasian, Weigel said.
"She made it a point to make little digs of being from the mainland," said Weigel during a phone interview from Denver.
Iseri-Carvalho gave Weigel an ultimatum to get a new boyfriend or leave the job because her boyfriend, who worked as a defense attorney on Kauai, would create a conflict for her, she said. Weigel said it was not an issue as he had only two cases at the time.
According to a news release, the commission found reasonable cause that she was subjected to harassment. Along with the monetary settlement, the county agreed to establish policies and complaint procedures addressing discrimination and harassment in the workplace and to provide training to all managers and supervisors.
In a written statement, County Attorney Al Castillo Jr. said, "We considered all aspects of the claim including a recognition of a continuing course of conduct by the management of the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney as well as the overwhelming evidence against the office uncovered by the EEOC. Major considerations in assessing the claim were factors such as the complaint involved a department whose head is an elected official and a lawyer, and the agency involved is the county’s law enforcement arm."
Iseri-Carvalho said Weigel’s boyfriend’s position as a defense attorney was a conflict because the prosecutor’s office was understaffed and that she would have to find other deputy prosecutors to handle cases that involved defendants represented by her boyfriend. It would be unfair to the other deputy prosecutors, she said.
She criticized the county attorney’s office of improperly handling the claim and failing to confer with the prosecutor’s office about the settlement.
She questioned how the prosecutor’s office could get fair representation from the county attorney’s office, alleging Castillo and Deputy County Attorney Marc Guyot, who Iseri-Carvalho said handled the claims filed by the three women, are supporters of her opponent. Castillo and Guyot could not be reached for comment.
Iseri-Carvalho also alleged the settlements are also being done in retaliation from Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration against the prosecutor’s office after they supported the Police Commission concerning legal authority over the position of the police chief when Chief Darryl Perry was placed on leave by the mayor in early February.
"We have always had more Caucasian attorneys than any other ethnic group. At one point we had about 10 Caucasian attorneys and two non-Caucasian, quite overwhelming. People should talk to the employees here. I wish there was a trial on these matters because these should go out to the public so that the truth can be heard," Iseri-Carvalho said.
Kollar said he doesn’t believe the settlements are politically driven and that it typically takes a claim a year or two to make its way through the system. "It’s not unusual the settlement would come out in 2012 if something happened in 2009, 2010," he said.
