Trial against District Attorney Chad Taylor rescheduled for Jan. 4 in former employees' lawsuit
Two former workers allege discrimination
A jury trial in a federal lawsuit two former employees are pursuing against Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor has been rescheduled to begin during his last week in office.
U.S. District Court records show a continuance was granted June 20 arranging for Judge Kathryn H. Vratil to hear the case starting 9 a.m. Jan. 4 in Kansas City, Kan.
The trial was previously set to start Sept. 19, according to a court order issued last September. The trial is expected to last about five days, said a prior scheduling order issued in February 2015.
Taylor, a Democrat who took office in 2009 and announced in early May he wouldn’t seek election to a third term, is expected to leave office when his term ends Jan. 9.
Lisa Anne Moore, of Lawrence, and Krystal L. Boxum-Debolt, of Rancho Rio, N.M., filed the suit Oct. 1, 2012, claiming racial and gender discrimination plus other issues they said led to their wrongful termination from Taylor’s office.
Moore and Boxum-Debolt, who are Caucasian, were victim-witness specialists in the district attorney’s office, where Boxum-Debolt started work in August 2005 and Moore in June 2009.
Moore and Boxum-Debolt said they reported gender discrimination because female employees weren’t provided with a location to breast feed or pump in the office. Neither was breast-feeding a child at the time.
They also said their supervisor, Heather Whitton, engaged in racial discrimination by allegedly coercing a Hispanic employee, her family and a Hispanic murder victim’s widow to clean her home.
In August 2010, Taylor gave Moore and Boxum-Debolt a choice of resigning or being fired — Moore resigned and Boxum-Debolt chose to be formally dismissed.
In documents tied to the case, Taylor claimed Boxum-Debolt and Moore deserved to be terminated because their work emails about colleagues featured “derogatory and unprofessional comments” laced with profanity, they were allegedly plotting to get their supervisor fired and they perpetuated a “hostile environment” at work.