Officer says reporting supervisor’s unwanted kiss got her fired. Legal battle continues

An unwanted kiss from a lieutenant led to an officer’s firing weeks after she reported it, according to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against a Georgia county sheriff’s office.

Now, a U.S. appeals court is allowing the legal battle to continue — reversing the ruling of a district court in Atlanta.

A federal judge previously decided Laura Alkins’ complaint that the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office’s retaliated against her for reporting the kiss was not protected under federal law “because she lacked a reasonable belief that the unwanted kissing amounted to sexual harassment,” the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in summarizing the decision.

However, the appeals court ruled that the unwanted kiss from her then-supervisor was “‘close enough’ to sexual harassment” and has revived Alkins’ lawsuit against the sheriff’s office, according to a written opinion on Aug. 22.

“A reasonable person in Alkins’s shoes could believe that receiving an unwanted, openmouthed kiss from a supervisor was sexual harassment,” the court wrote.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents an employer from retaliating against a worker who opposes an unlawful workplace practice such as sexual harassment.

Gwinnett County spokeswoman Deborah Tuff told McClatchy News that the sheriff’s office will not comment on pending litigation.

“The issue was not whether my client was harassed or whether the Sheriff was liable,” Alkins’ attorney, John Wales, told McClatchy News in a statement. “The issue is whether you can terminate an employee for complaining that they felt harassed or discriminated against.”

“The Sheriff fired Lieutenant Alkins because they thought she was lying. We argued that it doesn’t matter if you believe the victim or not,” Wales added. “You can decide against her or even disbelieve her, you just can’t fire her for complaining.”

After the sheriff’s office initially investigated Alkins’ report of the unwanted kiss, officials maintained there was no proof of her allegation and told her the office had “lost confidence in [her] ability to effectively provide leadership,” according to the appeals court.

Then, she was fired.

The unwanted kiss

In 2018, Alkins, who worked for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office as a peace officer for nearly 20 years, had already been promoted as a lieutenant when was told she was to be reassigned back to work in the county jail, the written opinion states.

This ignited fear in Alkins because years before, as a corporal, she worked under a then-lieutenant who she said gave her an unwarranted, open-mouthed kiss after ordering her into an empty office, according to the opinion. At the time, she told only her husband about the kiss and did not report it.

“She feared that a transfer back to the jail would require her to work under (the man) — now a captain — and potentially expose her to further unwanted contact,” so she reported the kiss to a supervisor within the sheriff’s office, the appeals court wrote.

This report launched an investigation, and as a result, Alkins was subjected to a lie detector test and put on administrative leave before the investigation “failed to prove or disprove her allegation,” according to the appeals court.

Another investigation ensued after Alkins “made statements about superior officers’ reactions to her allegation,” but it was determined that she was “untruthful” and was demoted, the opinion summarizing the lawsuit states.

A third investigation began when Alkins said the supervisor whom she reported the unwanted kiss to said he had knowledge of similar allegations made against the then-lieutenant, according to the appeals court. But this claim was not substantiated by the sheriff’s office.

Ultimately, Alkins was fired, and she decided to sue the sheriff’s office in January 2020.

“A jury could find that she engaged in protected activity by reporting the kiss,” the appeals court wrote in its opinion.

Wales told McClatchy News that the appeals court’s decision to revive Alkins’ lawsuit “is correct and necessary for any employee who considers complaining about sexual harassment.”

Gwinnett County makes up part of the Atlanta metropolitan region.

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