The parties to a former Lackawanna County deputy prison warden\u2019s federal lawsuit alleging she was fired because she\u2019s gay and in retaliation for reporting discriminatory conduct agreed to settle the suit, county General Counsel Christopher Caputo confirmed.<\/p>\n
Former Deputy Warden for Treatment Krista Purvis sued the county and county prison in late 2022, alleging she was fired earlier that year after she complained that Warden Tim Betti was biased against women and made disparaging comments about her sexuality.<\/p>\n
The suit alleged a pattern of misogynistic and homophobic comments by Betti and other county employees, with Purvis claiming she was subjected to undue scrutiny that ultimately led to her firing in June 2022 based on an \u201cabsurd\u201d allegation she helped an inmate obtain contraband.<\/p>\n
The parties agreed in early 2023 to remove the prison as a defendant, with the suit against the county proceeding thereafter in federal court.<\/p>\n
Caputo confirmed Wednesday that the parties are settling the suit but declined to discuss the terms of the settlement, noting he\u2019s \u201cwaiting for them to be approved by the court and finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know since it involves \u2026 a governmental entity that there will be certain disclosures made, I just don\u2019t know what the parameters of that are just yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Caputo also noted the decision to settle the suit was made with the approval of and informed by input from the county\u2019s insurance carrier, which will largely cover the cost of the settlement.<\/p>\n
An order signed Jan. 15 by U.S. District Judge Karoline Mehalchick noted the court was advised \u201cthe matter has settled\u201d and directed the parties to submit an \u201cappropriate dismissal filing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The online court docket also includes a stipulation of dismissal, filed early Wednesday and signed by attorneys for Purvis and the county, noting \u201call parties stipulate and agree that this matter is settled, discontinued, and dismissed with prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latter document did not bear Mehalchick\u2019s signature as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Efforts to reach Purvis and her attorney, Christine E. Burke, were not immediately successful, nor were efforts to reach county Solicitor Paul James Walker and attorney Dana M. Zlotucha, whom the stipulation of dismissal lists as counsel for the county.<\/p>\n
Purvis started working for the county in May 2017 as a social worker in the public defender\u2019s office. She took a job as a prison guard with the rank of lieutenant in February 2020 and was promoted twice thereafter, with the county commissioners ultimately naming her deputy warden for treatment in August 2020.<\/p>\n
Her suit claimed she was fired in 2022 in retaliation for raising numerous concerns of \u201cgender and sexual orientation discrimination.\u201d Among other claims, Purvis alleged Betti, the warden, was so intent on getting her fired that he falsely accused her of having a sexual relationship with a female prison nurse and once drove to a local hotel under the mistaken belief that she and the woman were there together.<\/p>\n
Betti \u201celected to scrutinize, target and question (Purvis) because she is a lesbian female,\u201d per the suit, which didn\u2019t name the warden as a defendant. She accused Betti, a former county human resources director and \u201cother (unnamed) high-level management\u201d of making \u201cnumerous discriminatory comments about women, LGBTQ individuals and transgender inmates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purvis was placed on administrative leave in March 2022, months before her June firing, after prison officials accused her of helping inmate Steven Wong obtain a crucifix necklace and wedding band that were mailed to the prison addressed to Purvis. According to her suit, the county accused Purvis of showing favoritism toward an inmate and maintains she was fired for violating prison policy and refusing to cooperate in an investigation into the case.<\/p>\n
An attorney for the county, Zlotucha, acknowledged in court papers filed in early 2023 that prison officials had investigated claims that Purvis and the female nurse had a sexual relationship, but said the investigation had no bearing on her firing.<\/p>\n
That 2023 filing also denied that Betti or other county employees \u201cmade any inappropriate gender and\/or sexual orientation-related comments at any time,\u201d rejecting claims that the county engaged in discriminatory treatment of Purvis and that a hostile work environment existed. Purvis herself was disciplined in October 2021 for making a \u201cderogatory sexual comment about two locally elected public officials\u201d during a prison shift commander meeting, it claimed.<\/p>\n
Regarding the Wong investigation, prison policy forbids any employee from receiving and delivering any property to an inmate, the county\u2019s filing notes. It also accused Purvis of refusing to cooperate when questioned about the incident and of being insubordinate.<\/p>\n
Purvis\u2019 suit argued she was fired for a \u201ccompletely absurd, made-up, and nonsensical reason\u201d after trying to correct institutional bias and discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pretextual rationale was so absurd, Defendant had to compound the excuse with feigned claims that Plaintiff wasn\u2019t cooperative,\u201d per the suit.<\/p>\n
The Purvis controversy also led to problems for then-Democratic Commissioner Debi Domenick, who came under fire in July 2022 after then-District Attorney Mark Powell accused her of accessing emails related to his office\u2019s investigation of the Wong incident. A court action initiated by Powell was later resolved after Domenick agreed not to access further emails.<\/p>\n
Domenick, elected in 2019, did not seek reelection as commissioner in 2023.<\/p>\n
Were it not for the settlement, jury selection and trial in Purvis\u2019 civil suit were scheduled to begin March 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parties to a former Lackawanna County deputy prison warden\u2019s federal lawsuit alleging she was fired because she\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,729],"class_list":{"0":"post-99391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news","15":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}