Pennsylvania Jury Awards Corrections Officer $1M Over Retaliatory Firing Claim

A white Allegheny County jail corrections officer who claimed he was fired in retaliation for reporting racial and sexual harassment incidents has been awarded almost $1 million by a federal jury.

Jeffrey Kengerski claimed that the Allegheny County Jail and Warden Orlando Harper violated his statutory and constitutional right to be free from retaliation for complaints of race-based harassment in his workplace under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Right Act. He further claimed that the jail and Harper interfered with his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and retaliated against him for opposing conduct made unlawful under the FMLA.

Prior to filing his lawsuit, Kengerski filed Title VII complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission but his claims were dismissed. In January, 2020, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Ranjan, dismissed the case, finding that Kengerski’s report did not concern an unlawful employment practice under Title VII.

However, in August, 2021, a three judge panel for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to district court for trial. A jury has now awarded $400,000 in compensatory damages and $531,000 for back pay and future earnings.

In 2015, Kengerski complained that a supervising corrections officer had made racially offensive comments about his young biracial niece and sent numerous racially offensive text messages to his phone. The officer ignored his requests to stop the texts. He was told his complaint would not be investigated and no action was taken. After Kengerski submitted a detailed memorandum outlining his allegations. as requested by Harper, Kengerski was served with an unjustified discipline for “switching shifts,” a common practice among prison employees. He was also denied promotion to a position that the warden gave to a person who had not applied and he was disciplined multiple times based on false allegations against him.

In another incident, Kengerski reported on a potential sexual harassment situation. The supervisor to whom he reported it was himself terminated for sexual misconduct. But no action was taken against any party involved in the sexual harassment allegation. Kengerski said he was concerned that the report had not been handled correctly. He was then terminated for allegedly interfering with the investigation into the sexual harassment allegation, which he said was untrue.

He said his firing amounted to retaliation for his charges of racial discrimination and harassment against a senior member of the jail administration.

Topics Pennsylvania