State Attorney's Office settles 3 sexual harassment lawsuits

The State Attorney’s Office settled three sexual harassment lawsuits for $75,000 each filed by employees against the previous administration.

Brenda Keys, Gena Duncan and Barbara Chase claimed that former State Attorney Steve Meadows sexually harassed and retaliated against them because of their complaints during his four years in office. Meadows took office in 2005 and served until January, after being defeated for re-election in November.

Keys’ and Duncan’s claims were investigated by the state Human Relations Commission last year, which found evidence to support their allegations and cleared the way for the lawsuits to be filed. The commission’s investigative report mentioned Chase, which allowed her to piggyback onto the report and file her own lawsuit.

Kyra Jennings, a state Department of Financial Services spokeswoman, said Friday the suits were settled for $75,000 each.

Meadows has repeatedly denied sexually harassing anyone during his term in office and had said he hoped the current administration would fight the allegations. He said Friday that he had not been consulted about the settlement.

“I have provided all the material that could possibly be used to refute the allegations to the counsel for the state,” Meadows said. “My hope was that they would vigorously defend these allegations. The decision to settle or not is beyond my power. I’m disappointed that the plaintiffs are being unjustly enriched for these false allegations.”

Keys’ lawyer, Marie Mattox of Tallahassee, filed notice Friday in federal court that they had reached a settlement in her case. The terms were not specified.

State Attorney Glenn Hess confirmed Friday that his office and the state Office of Risk Management, which is ultimately responsible for paying the settlement, had settled all three lawsuits.

“We looked at the individual claims, the HRC report and things we learned as we were investigating these claims,” Hess said. “We felt that the claim of a sexually oppressive workplace was going to be difficult to defend. We reached a settlement that we felt was fair to those women in the harassment claims and which we could live with.”

Hess said a significant factor in his decision to settle was the fact that the plaintiffs’ attorneys could sue for as much as $450 an hour in attorneys’ fees if they prevailed at trial. In Mattox’s notice, she says that both sides will be responsible for paying their own attorney fees.

“I’m glad we can move on,” Hess said. “I felt like we put all this behind us on Jan. 5” when he took office. “There’s a different atmosphere in the State Attorney’s Office. This will not happen again at the State Attorney’s Office, not while I’m here.”