Municipal Judge Says City Retaliated with Residency Probe When She Questioned Possible Age Bias
Kansas City Municipal Judge Elena Franco has filed an administrative discrimination claim over a city residency probe, contending that it was conducted in retaliation for the questions she raised about possible age bias.
In the spring of 2011, Franco said, she questioned whether a potential restructuring of the city prosecutor’s office that would have eliminated several older prosecutors could be discriminatory, the Kansas City Star reports. The residency probe, she says, then resulted.
In August 2011 she was suspended without pay after being accused of not filling the requirement that she live in the city. But in September 2011, the Municipal Judicial Nominating Commission found that her claimed city residency was valid, the newspaper reports. Nonetheless, Franco says discrimination against her continues.
“The city’s investigation of me and its suspension of me without pay or benefits (while simultaneously leaking the suspension to the press in an effort to embarrass and humiliate me) were in direct retaliation for my opposition to what I reasonably believed to be illegal discrimination and/or other illegal activity,” says Franco in her Missouri Commission on Human Rights complaint.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “City Put Municipal Judge Under Surveillance in Residency Probe, Found She Rarely Spent Night at Home”
