A former Lynnwood police officer, who won a federal court judgment against the city in April, last week filed a second lawsuit seeking reinstatement to her old job and back pay.
Cynthia Caterson was fired from the force in December 2005. Her new lawsuit filed in Snohomish County Superior Court names Lynnwood, Police Chief Steve Jensen and the Snohomish County prosecutor’s office as defendants.
The complaint alleges that Lynnwood and Jensen retaliated against Caterson in violation of state law.
It also alleges that the prosecutor’s office “aided and abetted an unfair employment practice” by issuing a letter stating that Caterson gave “false testimony” in an investigation into whether she purchased greeting cards and stamps while on duty. She also wants the court to order the letter rescinded.
The police department alleged that she lied during the investigation of the shopping incident. Caterson alleges in documents that the department “falsely” told the prosecutor that she had lied.
Barbara Dykes, chief civil deputy prosecutor, said she has no comment on the merits of the allegation.
“We’re reviewing it now to assess where we are,” Dykes said. She believes the prosecutor’s office will ask the court to drop the county agency from the lawsuit.
Seattle lawyer Bob Christie, who represents Lynnwood, could not be reached for comment Monday. In the federal trial, Christie maintained that the department didn’t discriminate against Caterson. Anything negative that happened to her was due to her performance, he said then.
A few months before the federal trial, she was fired, “without just and proper cause,” Caterson alleges.
According to court documents, Caterson approached a supervisor in March 2002 complaining about different treatment on assignments and training, alleging it was because of her gender. She alleged that the supervisor almost immediately began to retaliate against her.
In May 2002, the supervisor wrote a memorandum calling Caterson a “detriment to morale,” documents said. The next month, she was removed from a detective position and reassigned to a patrol job where she earned less salary and received less overtime pay.
Earlier this year, a federal court jury listened to two weeks of testimony and deliberated nearly a day before finding that Caterson had been discriminated against, and the city retaliated against her. The jury awarded Caterson nearly $350,000.
After the trial, Caterson’s lawyer, Judith Lonnquist of Seattle, predicted that the former officer would be reinstated.
On Monday, Lonnquist said her client has “made overtures” to get her job back, but the city “has been amazingly quiet. It seems like it’s a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ money to make us go through this again.”
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