County Judge Jim Baker has already taken "corrective action" in response to complaints about sexual harassment by a Faulkner County official, attorneys contend in a newly filed court document.
As a result, the attorneys argued, a federal court should dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former employee of the county's Office of Emergency Management.
Julie Woodward's lawsuit accuses that office's director, Shelia Bellott, of sexual harassment. Other defendants are the county, Baker and Faulkner County Administrator Tom Anderson. The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
In responding to a recently amended complaint, county attorneys argued "that corrective action was taken by the County Judge, including, but not limited to moving Defendant Bellott to other work locations."
The response did not specify what those other actions were. In the past, David Hogue, the county attorney, has said that in addition to assigning Bellott to work at a facility separate from her employees at the time, Baker also ordered her not to talk on the phone with three of her office's four employees.
All four employees had filed complaints against Bellott, and two of them sued. One of those two has since withdrawn from the lawsuit, and all four have resigned.
[DOCUMENT: Read Faulkner County's response]
In the response, filed late last week, the county attorneys wrote that the defendants had "exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior and/or the Plaintiffs unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise."
Hogue and another attorney conducted separate investigations after the employees filed the complaints against Bellott. Both attorneys recommended that Baker fire Bellott. Baker, however, declined to fire or suspend Bellott, who remains in the position.
After Hogue's investigation, the Quorum Court appointed Cody Hiland to investigate the matter again. Hiland then was a prosecuting attorney but was reviewing the matter in a civil role. Hiland has since become the U.S. attorney in Little Rock.
Only Baker can fire Bellott. The Quorum Court, however, can withhold funding for her position.
Findings of Hiland's investigation were not made public until recently in a court document filed by Woodward's attorney, Tom Mickel.
Complaints filed with the county last year accused Bellott of various infractions, including harassment, recurring tardiness, absenteeism and falsifying time cards. The complaints and the lawsuit have indicated that the employees were upset that Bellott reportedly talked about her sex life in sometimes graphic terms during work.
According to the amended complaint filed in July, Hiland, whom it did not identify by name, found that Bellott's conduct relating to unwanted sexual comments violated the county's personnel manual.
Hiland also found that Bellott had acted "punitively toward all the OEM employees, including [Woodward], by requiring them to fill out forms that the County itself discouraged," the complaint said.
One of the office's former employees is the Republican nominee for a seat on the Quorum Court. Tyler Lachowsky has no Democratic opponent in November and and is now the emergency management coordinator for the University of Central Arkansas.
State Desk on 08/07/2018