ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A former Allentown employee is claiming victory in her discrimination case against the city, but a mixed verdict leaves the result up in the air. 

A federal jury found Karen Ocasio’s firing by Mayor Matt Tuerk almost three years ago was motivated in part by her reporting of racial-discrimination complaints within city government. 

Ocasio’s attorney, Marc Weinstein, declared her “the winner” and said they will ask the jury to “put a financial price on the emotional distress caused to her,” while seeking lost pay. 

But the eight-person panel also found Tuerk did not retaliate against Ocasio; he had legitimate grounds to fire her from her job in the human resources department, court documents show. 

That gives Allentown officials reason to believe the case is settled in their favor. 

The jury “found the city not liable in the discrimination case,” Chelsea Koerbler, Tuerk’s communications manager, said Thursday in a statement.

“We have declared Karen to be the winner, but we need the judge to agree. We believe that he will.”
– Marc Weinstein, attorney for Karen Ocasio 

The trial – which played out in Allentown and Philadelphia federal courtrooms this week – is not yet over, though.

Weinstein has asked U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson to issue a final, favorable verdict for Ocasio. 

“We have declared Karen to be the winner, but we need the judge to agree. We believe that he will,” he said. 

She showed the jury there was a “but-for” causal link between her reporting of discrimination and her termination, so it should not matter if there were other factors in that action – if she didn’t air those allegations, she wouldn’t have been fired, Weinstein said. 

“Even though the jury found that other issues were in play, that there were other reasons, she (still) wins because the jury found but-for causation between her firing and her complaints of the racial and ethnic climate in the workplace,” he said. 

And Weinstein is asking Allentown City Council to “make this right and remedy this injustice with Ms. Ocasio, whether the mayor agrees that she’s the winner or not.” 

He also wants them to issue another vote of no-confidence against the mayor, the same action council took days after Tuerk fired Ocasio almost three years ago.