The Guardian has obtained documents which reveal the City of Washington Court House (WCH) used tax dollars to settle allegations of workplace harassment involving the city’s chief financial officer.
In the documents exclusively obtained by the Guardian, a lawyer representing a former city employee — Teena Keaton — brokered a settlement for more than $70,000 after Keaton raised allegations of harassment.
The letter outlines claims that Keaton’s direct supervisor, the city’s finance director, Tom Riley, bullied and harassed her for years.
The allegations.
“Ms. Keaton has shared with me the relentless bullying and harassment that she received from Director of Finance, Tom L. Riley for at least the past 20 years,” Keaton’s lawyer, Jeffrey Silverstein wrote to the city manager, Joe Denen in 2019. “She has described the history of his use of vulgar language, and physical and verbal threats and intimidation.” The lawyer did not list specific incidents or allegations in his letter.
Keaton, 61, was the assistant director of finance overseeing the city’s budget before her ouster in 2018.
Silverstein wrote in his letter that Keaton was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and that she was “less able to endure or confront the harassment by Mr. Riley,” and that “[i]t was common knowledge that Mr. Riley would regularly come to work under the influence of alcohol, and by 2017, the stress of working in this toxic environment became untenable.” Keaton’s lawyer said that as a direct result of the alleged harassment by Riley, the female employee was forced into an early retirement in December 2018.
In April 2019, Silverstein wrote the city a letter outlining Keaton’s allegations of harassment and requesting a meeting to discuss a financial settlement. Silverstein wrote that if the city refused to entertain such a meeting, Keaton intended to file a lawsuit for discrimination based on age and disability, and presumably the alleged harassment.
“As I understand, the manner in which Mr. Riley treated Ms. Keaton was not unique to her; rather, he has displayed his hostility toward city employees and management at all levels.”
Less than a week later, City Manager Joe Denen wrote back to the attorney agreeing to meet to discuss a possible settlement.
“If a meeting is desired, I suggest that your client may find your office more agreeable location [sic] for a talk….[a]fter Teena retired, Teena expressed a desire for part-time employment with the city. Teena also expressed a desire that said employment not be in the city building. Therefore, I make the assumption that your office may be more amendable than other possible locations.”
While the public records do not show when the city and Keaton’s lawyer met, a settlement and non-disclosure outlines an extensive agreement that the two did, indeed, agree to a financial settlement.
Settlement with tax dollars.
According to a settlement agreement dated in June 2019, the city paid a total of $70,722 to keep Keaton from suing them and to prevent her from talking publicly about her allegations of harassment.
The city made two separate payments: one for $48,272 directly to Keaton, and another for $22,450 to the law firm representing her. The city also agreed to write Keaton a “neutral reference letter” from the city manager for her personnel file.
The checks, which came out of the city’s general fund that is funded by tax dollars, were listed in the city’s ledger as “professional fees.”
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As part of the settlement agreement, Keaton had to agree that she would “not disclose the existence of” the agreement or “its terms to any person other than her spouse, her attorney, a financial advisor, and/or accountant….” She also had to agree to not sue the city for her allegations and release all claims pertaining to her alleged harassment. On the city’s part of the agreement, they refused to admit lability or sustain Keaton’s claims that she was harassed, or that Riley would come to work drunk.
As of Wednesday morning, Riley was still employed with the city in his position. Allegations circulating in the community that he entered into a personal financial settlement with Keaton in addition to the city’s settlement could not be independently verified by the Guardian.
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A lawyer representing the city did not immediately return a request for comment. Given the non-disclosure agreement Keaton signed, the Guardian chose not to reach out to Keaton for comment; a message was left with her lawyer.
Two members of Washington Court House’s (WCH) city council spoke on conditions of anonymity to the Guardian saying that they were never told about the settlement or the allegations made by Keaton. When asked if the two would bring up the issue, both declined to say how they would proceed, if at all about bringing up the matter to the rest of council. Neither would comment on the allegations by Keaton or the fact that Riley was still employed.
Click here to read the demand letter and settlement between Keaton and the city.
Other accusations of harassment.
Keaton is not the only employee to allege workplace harassment in the city building.
In 2020, another female employee alleged that she was sexually harassed and verbally assaulted by two men who work in the same building where Keaton’s office was.
The female employee — who the Guardian is not naming because this publication does not identify alleged sexual assault victims without their permission — worked for Washington Court House (WCH) City Attorney Mark Pitstick as his assistant. Pitstick, the top law enforcement officer for the municipality, was hired in 1995 as the city’s Law Director and Prosecutor. Unlike most cities similar in size, Washington Court House does not elect their city solicitor. Instead, the position reports to the city manager and town council.
According to public documents obtained by the Guardian, a lawyer who was hired by the woman to represent her sent a letter to the city back in September, demanding $100,000 in damages due to sexual harassment. In the letter, the lawyer said the woman was hired by the city in 2018 and that her direct supervisor — Pitstick — began sexually harassing her after her job duties changed to focus more on his office. The woman’s employment, according to public records, was contracted through a temporary staffing agency.
According to the woman, Pitstick referred to her as a “dumb bitch” and “stupid bitch” on almost a daily basis. She also claims he called her a “slut” and said, “no one wants her because she has no tits or ass.” Her attorney alleged that City Manager Joe Denen witnessed the harassment and did nothing to stop it.
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Other employees are involved.
Pitstick is not the only person in the city the woman claims sexually harassed her. She alleged that City Code Enforcer Chris Richardson made sexually harassing comments “on a consistent basis.” Additionally, she claims Richardson initiated unwanted physical contact by pressing his penis up against her arm. When she complained to Pitstick, she alleged Pitstick replied, “You should be used to it.” Another time, Richardson is accused of walking behind the woman and saying, “You don’t know what those pants do to me.”
The woman said she was forced to quit her job in March 2020 because of the harassment. As a result, her attorney made a request: pay his client six figures or else she would proceed with her claims in a civil action.
“[She] demands that the employers pay her $100,000.00 in exchange for a release of her claims against the employers,” the lawyer wrote. “If the employers do not respond to [her] demand by or before October 1, 2020, she will file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
The Guardian reached out to the city for comment, who referred questions to a Cincinnati-based lawyer; the lawyer did not return messages. However, the Guardian obtained a letter authored by the firm hired to defend the city in the allegations.
The city refutes the allegations.
In the letter, the city’s hired-lawyer, Linda Woeber denied the allegations, labeling them as “unfounded.”
“[Her] upside-down version of the relationship among Mark, [Pitstick’s other assistant], and [herself] is only the most recent of [her] unfounded complaints about Washington Court House employees,” Woeber wrote. “Washington Court House is a very small community; each person I spoke with had nothing but good things to say about Mark, and they all knew that Mark helped [her] with dozens of legal, financial, and family situations, just as he helps others with whom he works.”
The attorney said Richardson also denied the complaints against him, as well.
“To the contrary, [Richardson] made a point of not being in a room alone with [her] because the banter he overheard between [Pitstick’s other assistant] and [her] made him uncomfortable, and he was aware the [she] had been incarcerated. Others who work with Chris view him as very straight-laced, tending to avoid off-color chatter among employees.”
While the woman’s lawyer, Brad Gibson, did not immediately grant the Guardian’s request for an interview, sources close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the allegations said that the woman has many of her claims recorded on audio files.
Not surprisingly, the city declined to make the $100,000 payment with tax dollars, and so far, a civil lawsuit has not been filed.
As of Wednesday evening, Pitstick and Richardson were both still employed with the city.
The demand letter and the city’s reply in the sexual harassment allegations can be read here.
If you or a loved one has been victim of sexual assault, free help is available. When you call 800.656.HOPE (4673), you’ll be routed to a local sexual assault service provider in your area. Trained staff can provide confidential support.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We will use obscenities, vulgarities, or slurs only in direct quotations and only if the quote is essential to the story. We do not publish names of sexual assault victims unless they agree to speak on the record.
