Discrimination lawsuit against Missouri Department of Corrections takes unusual turn

The disability discrimination lawsuit of Lori Lynn Walker, a former state prison guard who worked in Kansas City, has taken an unexpected turn.

Walker’s lawsuit against Missouri Department of Corrections officials, who face dozens of discrimination lawsuits and are being investigated by a legislative subcommittee, was set for trial Monday. It would have been the first trial since The Pitch published a story detailing the discrimination lawsuits and the millions of dollars that the department has already paid for jury awards and settlements over several years.

Walker’s case, filed in 2015, was highlighted in the Pitch story: Walker had suffered a seizure and seen her doctor, who gave her permission to return to work. But Warden Lilly Angelo ordered her to see another doctor, who examined her for one hour and then reported his findings to Angelo. It’s unclear what the report said, but Walker was then fired for being “absent without permission,” according to her court file.

Last Thursday evening, Walker and her attorneys negotiated a settlement agreement with Missouri Assistant Attorney General Michael Quinlan. The deal called for the state to pay Walker $400,000 and to rehire her at the prison, according to a motion filed late Friday by one of her attorneys, Gene P. Graham Jr.

Read more: http://www.pitch.com/news/blog/20857151/discrimination-lawsuit-against-missouri-department-of-corrections-takes-unusual-turn

Related:
Missouri AG Josh Hawley hires Shook, Hardy & Bacon to defend DOC discrimination lawsuit that was supposed to have settled last week

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has hired two partners and an associate lawyer from a high-profile law firm to fight a $900,000 settlement agreement that his agency had agreed to last week but backed away from a day later.

The Kansas City-based Shook, Hardy & Bacon, one of the country’s largest law firms — it has represented Big Tobacco, top pharmaceutical companies and Sprint — has been retained by the Missouri Department of Corrections in a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by Lori Lynn Walker, a former Kansas City prison guard who made $36,000 a year.

Walker’s trial was scheduled to begin on Monday but was canceled last Friday, after Walker’s attorneys, according to court records, had reached a settlement agreement with Michael Quinlan, the chief counsel for the attorney general’s litigation division.

It remains a puzzle why Hawley and the corrections department decided to withdraw from the settlement agreement, which would have paid Walker $400,000 cash plus required the department to rehire her. An evidentiary hearing scheduled for today, April 7, was canceled, in part to allow Anne L. Precythe, the recently hired director of the corrections department, to attend. A new date is still being scheduled, Jackson County Circuit Judge Joel P. Fahnestock’s clerk said today.

Read more: http://www.pitch.com/news/blog/20857542/missouri-ag-josh-hawley-hires-shook-hardy-bacon-to-defend-doc-discrimination-lawsuit-that-was-supposed-to-have-settled-last-week