Years after her supervisor received an intimate video of her and shared it with another coworker, a former Houston fireman will get a $850,000 payout from the city.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the Houston City Council authorized the settlement for Melinda Abbt. It occurs almost a year after Abbt was given $250,000 by a jury in her lawsuit against her former boss, John Barrientes.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Abbt expressed his satisfaction that the city was finally resolving this issue. However, I also want to make sure the administration is more equipped to deal with future complaints.
Evidence presented in a trial last year revealed that when Barrientes was on a call in 2008, she took the film she planned to show her husband off Abbt’s computer. At least one other Houston firefighter received a copy of the movie from Barrientes, according to attorneys, and the two viewed it over and over again for years. Abbt didn’t find out the video was being shared until 2017, nine years later.
According to Abbt, diligent workers ought to be shielded from unfriendly workplaces and their grievances ought to be taken seriously.
The city allegedly failed to guarantee Abbt that she would not have to work alongside the males going forward, and she required counseling and unpaid leave following the event.
Abbt’s attorney, Joe Ahmad, stated that he thinks the case will help the City of Houston manage issues like this in the future.
According to Ahmad, this should never have occurred and the city and fire department at the time handled it poorly. By being blas, the city victimized her once more.
It didn’t look into it, and the bosses claimed they didn’t handle sexual harassment complaints, didn’t care about the people watching the video, and wouldn’t help her get a better job, he said.
Last month, Councilman Edward Pollard wrote a letter asking for a revision to a 180-day misbehavior rule, stating that Abbt’s case demonstrates the negative effects of inadequate protections in workplace laws.
RELATED: A member of the Houston City Council requests a revised settlement for firemen in order to include a misconduct rule.
The 180-day rule is the period of time that firemen have to report wrongdoing so that the city can look into the matter. According to Pollard, the clause protected Barrientes from consequences, dismissal, or punishment.
According to Pollard’s letter, the 180-day regulation compelled her to take the city to court in order to obtain justice, a circumstance that could have been prevented had appropriate accountability procedures been in place.
According to Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Abbt said the 180-day regulation had nothing to do with her situation.
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