Two former employees of the Cache Valley Communications Center say Cache County and Logan officials shut down the multi-jurisdictional dispatch office simply to get rid of them.
Peggy S. Langille, the center's former director, and Margy Larson made the accusation Thursday in a U.S. District Court lawsuit against the city, county and a number of its top officials.According to the suit, the center was disbanded days after Langille provided information to lawyers in a sexual harassment and whis-tle-blower lawsuit that Larson and her husband had filed against county officials in June 1995. That suit was settled earlier this year.
The new lawsuit said County Executive Lynn Lemon, one of the defendants in the earlier suit, summoned Langille into his office to discuss a sexual harassment allegation that another employee had filed against Margy Larson.
"Lemon told Langille to discipline Larson and to put the complaint in her personnel file without telling Larson why she was being disciplined and without investigating the veracity of the complaint, all in violation of county policy," the suit said.
Langille said Lemon told her he wanted the complaint filed "because he hated Larson and was angry because he was named in the lawsuit." Langille refused to go along without first investigating the allegation. The suit said that investigation concluded the charge was baseless.
The following month, lawyers asked Langille about any conversations she had had with Lemon regarding Larson. "As she answered, Lemon became visibly upset," the suit said.
Within days, Lemon announced the county would not renew its contract with the dispatch center, effectively putting Langille, Larson and nine other dispatchers out of work. When Logan took over the dispatch operations, everyone except Langille and Larson were rehired.
"Lemon's actions had no legitimate basis, but were done solely to retaliate against Langille and Larson," the lawsuit said.
After she was fired, Langille said she received permission to remove her belongings from the dispatch office. As she and the Larsons were doing so, she informed the county human resource manager that there appeared to be some county items among her personal effects. The manager told her to sort them out over the weekend, the suit said.
But when Langille got home that night, she got a call about the county items from Logan Police Lt. Randy Auman. The suit said she told Auman the items were in the Larsons' car and that they couldn't be reached. Auman instructed her to report to the police station immediately.
"On arriving at the station, Langille was accosted by (Cache County Attorney Scott) Wyatt, who accused her of theft and threatened to prosecute her for a felony," the suit said.
At Wyatt's insistence, Langille and Auman went to the Larsons' house to retrieve the items. The Larsons were not home but received word of the visit. They called their attorney, who told Wyatt to get a search warrant, the suit said.
"The police and Wyatt remained parked outside the Larson home until the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 1996, when they obtained a search warrant for the Larson home and vehicle and searched their vehicle and removed several boxes of material."
None of the items was critical or necessary to the running of the dispatch center, the suit said, noting they are still in storage.
Though no charges were ever filed against Langille and Larson, the raid made the local paper, "causing harm to the plaintiffs' reputation." Cache officials did nothing to clear their names, the suit said.
Neither Wyatt nor Lemon could be reached for comment Friday.
Others named in the suit include Logan Police Chief Rich Hendricks; Marcene Parker, director of the Logan City Dispatch Center; Logan Mayor Darla Clark and various John and Jane Does.
Langille and Larson are seeking unspecified damages for wrongful termination and violation of constitutional rights.