Federal Jury Awards Portland City Employee Damages In Religious Harassment Case

In Portland, Oregon, a federal jury earlier this month awarded a former city employee damages of $14,080.  It found in its Nov. 8 special verdict (full text) that plaintiff was subjected to a hostile work environment based on her religion, and that the city knew or should have known about the situation and failed to take prompt effective remedial action.  As reported by yesterday's Oregonian, the complaint (full text) in Griffin v. City of Portland, (D OR, filed 4/9/2013) claimed that co-worker Theresa Lareau harassed plaintiff KellyMarie Griffin about her strong Christian beliefs, repeatedly making profane statements that offended Griffin and telling Griffin: "I’m tired of your Christian attitude and your Christian shit all over your desk and your Christian shit all over the place. I’m going to file a complaint against you the next time I sneeze and you say 'bless you'. You’re just doing it for the attention; you wear it on your sleeve like a badge and I’m sick of it. It offends me."