Curtis v. State

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DOUGLAS CURTIS, Plaintiff, v. STATE OF MAINE, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Defendant.

No. CV-23-165

Superior Court of Maine, Cumberland

November 30, 2023

Plaintiff-Guy Loranger, Esq.

Defendant-Kelly Morrell, AAG

ORDER ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS

Deborah P. Cashman Justice, Maine Superior Court

Before the Court is Defendant State of Maine, Department of Corrections's ("the Department") Motion to Dismiss. The Department seeks to dismiss all seven counts of Plaintiff Douglas Curtis's ("Curtis") complaint. The Department challenges Counts I-IV under M.R Civ. P 12(b)(1) on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that Curtis lacks standing to bring these counts. The Department challenges all counts under M.R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. For the reasons discussed below, the Department's motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

I. Facts

The following facts are recited from the complaint and are taken as true for purposes of this motion.

Curtis began employment with the Department in July of 2013 at one of the Department's correctional facilities located in Windham, Maine. (Compl. ¶¶ 2-3, 5.) In March of 2018, Curtis transferred to the day shift in the Intake Unit, processing intakes Monday through Friday. (Compl. ¶ 6.) Upon transfer to Intake, Curtis was exposed to pervasive offensive conversations between staff members, including supervisors who encouraged the offensive behavior. (Compl. ¶ 7.) The conversations were sexual, racist, homophobic, "blasphemous," and threatening in nature, and the subjects of these conversations included inmates and other employees. (Compl. ¶¶ 9-10.) Captain Gary Beaulieu sensed that Curtis was uncomfortable with the environment in Intake and spoke to Curtis about the need to not have thin skin in Intake. (Compl. ¶ 11.)

The hostile environment continued into 2019. (Compl. ¶ 12.) The Court recounts the following alleged incidents as representative examples of the incidents Curtis alleges occurred in 2019: on July 4th, although the supervisor knew of Curtis's religious beliefs and that Curtis does not celebrate holidays, the supervisor tried pushing him to partake in a Fourth of July party; on July 15th, staff showed Curtis a pornographic photo and laughed at him because they knew he did not like such behavior; on July 22nd, Curtis heard supervisors and staff joke about "blowjobs," which caused Curtis to vomit in the restroom; on August 1st, Curtis heard staff make racist comments joking about testicles; on August 8th, a supervisor asked Curtis, "were you checking out the sexy scans of the girls on the scanner today?;" on August 20th, Curtis heard coworkers talking about using baby oil to rape someone. (Compl. ¶¶ 15, 18, 20, 22, 24-25.) On October 30th, Curtis scanned a female intake and observed something suspicious which he reported to a supervisor. (Compl. ¶ 30.)

The supervisor commented to a female staff member, "you like sticking your hand way up there while strip searching and reaching around," in response to which Curtis quickly left the room. (Id.) The supervisor commented, "oh no, I embarrassed Curtis again." (Id.) Curtis alleges other incidents of remarks in the workplace that are sexual, homophobic, violent, racist, and offensive in nature that took place during 2019. (Compl. ¶¶ 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21, 23, 26-29, 33-24.) In November of 2019, Curtis met with Warden Scott Landry to report on the hostile work environment, the impact upon his health, and to request accommodation for a transfer to a safer position. (Compl, ¶ 31.) Curtis is not aware of the Warden taking any action in response to this report. (Compl. ¶ 32.)

The workplace environment remained the same during 2020. (Compl. ¶ 35.) In January, staff made daily homophobic, racist, and sexual comments. (Compl. ¶ 36.) On March 5th, Curtis heard staff laughing about murder and rape. (Compl. ¶ 37.) In June, Curtis heard the staff making racist comments about George Floyd, including the comments, "these people should be happy they were set free," and, "it was a mistake setting them free." (Compl. ¶ 38.) In September, staff made comments that they did not trust Curtis because he does not swear. (Compl. ¶ 39.) By November of 2020, residents were aware of staff and supervisors attempting to get Curtis to engage in "perverted behavior;" in response, one resident in Intake said, "leave Curtis alone with that noise." (Compl. ¶ 40.) In December, Curtis heard staff and supervisors (complaining about gay and trans people using "extremely offensive language." (Compl. ¶ 42.)

The workplace environment continued as alleged into 2021. (Compl. ¶ 43.) In March, Curtis filed a worker's compensation claim for "PTSD that was caused by the toxic work environment," (Compl. ¶ 44.) Curtis alleges that sexual, homophobic, anti-Semitic, transphobic, racist, ableist, offensive, and violent comments continued to be made in the workplace throughout 2021. (See Compl. ¶¶ 45, 47, 52-53, 55-57, 59-63, 66-68.) On one occasion, Curtis observed a noose hanging from the ceiling of the break room. (Compl. ¶ 71.)

Sometime in the Spring of 2021, Jodie Craig ("Craig") from Human Resources ("HR") contacted Curtis, but he was reluctant to speak to Craig for fear of retaliation and the Warden's failure to respond to Curtis's prior complaint. (Compl. ¶ 46.) By June, Curtis frequently vomited at work and staff continued to poke fun at Curtis for "freaking out at their stories." (Compl, ¶ 48.) In July, Curtis worked up the courage to contact Craig, but Craig would not help Curtis unless he gave her names. (Compl. ¶ 49.) Curtis explained to Craig that he feared retaliation. (Id.) Curtis requested that the Department contact supervisors and the administration to enforce zero tolerance for "pervasive hostile conversations." (Compl. ¶ 50.) Craig asked Curtis to submit an anonymous letter identifying names and incidents while pretending to be a witness, but Curtis refused to lie in any way. (Compl. 51.) At some point after Curtis spoke with Craig, the words "Rat City" were sketched into the window next to Curtis's workstation, which he reported to Sergeant LeClair. (Compl. ¶ 58.)

Curtis alleges the following incidents directed at him during 2021: a staff member made a comment about the game cornhole in front of Sergeant LeClair saying, "bend over Curtis and let's play the real cornhole," Sergeant LeClair responded, "people playing cornhole throw sacks because they do not like holding balls;" in September, a staff member told another staff member not to get Curtis pregnant; also in September, Sergeant Dudley began to use "offensive language" around and toward Curtis; on November 11th, Sergeant Dudley told Curtis to "get off Pornhub." (Compl. ¶¶ 54, 63, 68.) Curtis sent an email to HR on November 21 to report Sergeant Dudley's comment. (Compl. ¶ 69.) In response, the Warden sent an email to staff instructing them to be professional; Curtis is not aware of the Department taking any further remedial action. (Id.)

In September of 2021, Curtis filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) alleging hostile work environment based upon sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, ancestry, and retaliation. (Compl. ¶ 64.) On November 19, 2021, Curtis met with Scott Landry ("Landry") of HR regarding his worker's compensation claim. (Compl. ¶ 70.) After this meeting, Unit Manager Bill Segler interviewed Curtis about recent incidents with CO Chris Page, Sergeant LeClair, and CO Jessica Szeyley. (Compl. ¶ 72.) Craig subsequently called Curtis to inquire about him getting sick due to the "hostile work environment." (Compl. ¶ 73.) Curtis reported to Craig about defecating in his pants at work due to the environment. (Id.) Craig asked Curtis if he was still seeing a therapist and suggested he get his therapist's opinion on what Curtis should do to change his situation. (Id.) Craig also stated that she could not guarantee that coworkers would stop their offensive behavior or that Curtis's name would not get back to the people he was reporting. (Id.) On November 29th, the Department filed its response to Curtis's MHRC complaint denying any wrongdoing. (Compl. ¶ 74.)

In early 2022, Curtis corresponded with HR to request family medical leave due to his physical reaction to the workplace culture. (Compl. ¶ 78.) Craig also offered to Curtis the option of completing "ADA paperwork" if Curtis felt he could no longer do his job to explore reassignment to another area of state employment. (Compl. ¶ 79.) Curtis continued to report to Craig about times when the stress of his job caused him to defecate himself in bed and on the way to work. (Compl. ¶ 80-81.) Curtis emailed Craig to express his feeling that he was being targeted because of his cooperation with workplace investigations. (Compl. ¶ 83-84.)

In the Spring of 2022, Curtis accepted a new position at the prison in the activities office, but he did not feel that the change in position changed much in his work environment. (Compl. ¶ 84-85.) On April 19, 2022, Curtis sent an email to Craig and Darlene Sage ("Sage") reporting vomiting on his way in to work, "defecating intermittently at work in [his] pants because of [his] PTSD caused by the toxic work culture and the fact that MCC allowed [his] name to be leaked out the [sic] staff members letting them know [he had] been cooperating with investigations." (Compl. ¶ 88.) In the same email he expressed that he thought his life was at risk. (Id.) Craig responded to let Curtis know that "ADA is still an option." (Id.)

On April 21, 2022, Curtis emailed Craig and Sage to let them know that he had been taken off his new post in activities to work in intake. (Compl. ¶ 89.) Craig responded that "(t]he ability to...