Nov 7, 2009 6:04 pm US/Mountain
Whistleblower Files Lawsuit Against Natrona County
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) ―
A whistleblower whose statements led to the indictment of Natrona County's former chief deputy coroner on drug charges has filed a lawsuit against the county commission.
Anna Ray filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court contending she was wrongfully terminated as an investigator in the coroner's office and her civil rights violated after she made statements that led to the indictment of Gary Hazen.
Hazen was accused of taking prescription drugs from death scenes and in July pleaded guilty to possession charges.
In the lawsuit, Ray contends her termination in April 2008 was in retaliation for her reporting theft of medication and her complaints of sexual harassment by Hazen.
Ray began work as an investigator on March 20, 2007, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit contends that Hazen sexually harassed Ray by asking her about her personal life, telling her about his intimate affairs, and treating her more harshly than male employees.
In November and December of 2007, Ray and another employee reported the drug thefts and that they were being harassed to then-Coroner Dr. Jim Thorpen. The lawsuit said Thorpen didn't take any action.
Ray next told her concerns to local law enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and then-County Attorney Eric Nelson. According to the lawsuit, Nelson took those concerns to the county commissioners in early 2008.
"Upon learning from the County Attorney that Plaintiff had made complaints concerning him, including the complaint of sexual harassment, Hazen threatened Plaintiff for taking her complaints 'upstairs' and 'opening a can of worms,'" the lawsuit said.
Ray was reassigned to work in the morgue in March 2008, where she was subjected to greater scrutiny and harassment from Hazen, according to the lawsuit, which said that "throughout these events the County Attorney and the County Commissioners were kept apprised of the retaliatory actions and the concerns of theft of medication, however, they too refused to take action."
Hazen did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Saturday.
Ray was fired on April 30, 2008. She was interviewed on May 14 by two agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. An affidavit with that interview was filed with Natrona County Circuit Court on Friday.
Ray said Hazen told her to go to the homes of deceased people to pick up controlled substances, and that some of those items disappeared from a storage cabinet.
"On one case that (she) worked, she documented many narcotics that she left in the cabinet for Hazen. In that case, after several days she and (a worker in the coroner's office) re-counted the pills and discovered an entire bottle of Morphine missing. From their research, they believed that the only medications that were ever unaccounted for were narcotics."
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Information from: Casper Star-Tribune - Casper, http://www.casperstartribune.net
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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