Former San Mateo County SWAT team member
Carryn Barker reaches historic
settlement of $8,000,000 after
enduring years of sexual harassment and assault
LOS
ANGELES, July 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A historic
settlement has been reached in the sexual harassment and
discrimination lawsuit filed by San Mateo County Sheriff's
Office detective and former SWAT Operator Carryn Barker.
The $8,000,000 settlement
effectively ends Barker's lawsuit against San Mateo County arising out of Barker's
allegations of enduring years of sexual harassment and
discrimination at the Sheriff's Office and a sexual assault by
former SWAT Team Leader Andre
Moniot. The settlement came shortly before the lawsuit's
September trial date and the date when the Court was to decide
whether Barker's attorney, Zak Franklin, would have the
opportunity to depose Sheriff Christina
Corpus about her role in San Mateo
County's mistreatment of Barker.
During the almost two-year litigation, documents and depositions
of 21 current and former employees of the Sheriff's Office revealed
that Barker—a UC-Berkeley graduate, a Medal of Honor recipient, and
only the second woman to ever qualify for San Mateo County's SWAT team—was subjected to
sexual harassment by her SWAT team supervisor, Andre Moniot. The harassment and discrimination
began shortly after Barker joined the SWAT team in 2018 and it
included Moniot making frequent vulgar comments about Barker's
body, telling Barker and others that he wanted to have sex with
Barker, instructing Barker to wear revealing clothing during team
workouts, touching Barker inappropriately, requiring Barker to ride
alone with him to and from SWAT functions, and eventually
assaulting Barker at a SWAT team gathering in October 2021.
Evidence discovered by Barker's attorneys in the lawsuit
revealed that San Mateo County
Sheriff's Office's culpability went well beyond Moniot. Sheriff's
Office employees testified that they reported Moniot's sex
harassment of Barker to multiple high-ranking officers at the
Sheriff's Office, but nothing was done to investigate the matter or
protect Barker until after she filed the lawsuit. Testimony
revealed that as of early 2021—several months before Moniot
sexually assaulted Barker—at least five high-ranking officers were
aware that Moniot was sexually harassing Barker but failed to
intervene. Moniot himself testified that he would not have sexually
assaulted Barker if anyone in a leadership position at the
Sheriff's Office had informed him that Barker and others had
reported his sexual harassment of Barker.
Moniot's sexual assault of Barker was widely discussed at the
Sheriff's Office in the months following the assault, but the
Sheriff's Office did not take any action to investigate the matter
or to protect Barker until a retiring high-level officer formally
notified the Sheriff's Offices' Internal Affairs department in
August 2022. Witnesses stated that
the Sheriff's Office's belated investigation was motivated by
then-Sheriff Bolanos's desire to punish Moniot for his support of
now-Sheriff Christina Corpus and his
purportedly leaking to media information about Bolanos abusing his
position as sheriff to help a friend recover a vintage
Batmobile.
Evidence uncovered in the lawsuit revealed that both the Bolanos
and Corpus administrations failed to punish the high-ranking
officers who failed to protect Barker and some of those officers
even received promotions despite their failure to protect Barker.
"It would be misleading for the Corpus administration to claim
Corpus had no role in how Carryn was mistreated," added Franklin.
"Leadership under both the Bolanos and the Corpus administration
should be ashamed of how they treated Carryn."
In August 2022, the Sheriff's
Office forced Barker to participate in an Internal Affairs
investigation into Moniot's harassment of Barker despite Barker
being told that the investigation was a means to retaliate against
Moniot rather than to protect Barker and with Barker still required
to follow Moniot's orders during dangerous SWAT operations. Despite
initiating an Internal Affairs investigation, the Sheriff's Office
failed to take any action to protect Barker from Moniot. One
witness testified that in August 2022
several men in leadership at the Sheriff's Office met to discuss
Moniot's harassment of Barker and they unanimously agreed that
something should be done to protect Barker from Moniot, but still
nobody took any action to protect Barker. Barker took a leave of
absence from the SWAT team in September
2022 to avoid having to attend the same SWAT team function
where Moniot assaulted her the previous year and where Moniot was
expected to be in attendance that year. Barker ultimately resigned
from the SWAT team in November 2022
after the County still failed to do anything to protect Barker from
Moniot.
Resigning from the SWAT team was devastating to Barker. "I loved
that team so much. They were my brothers. I worked so hard to be on
that team and to form those relationships," said Barker. "You know,
there's nowhere else you know somebody will take a bullet for you
without the blink of an eye. And because of one person's actions
and the County refusing to help me, that was all taken away from
me."
San Mateo County Sheriff's
Office continued to fail to do anything to protect Barker until she
engaged attorney Zak Franklin of the
law firm Franklin Law P.C. and
the firm filed Barker's lawsuit in November
2022. Barker was not eager to file the lawsuit. "I didn't
want a lawsuit; I just wanted the harassment to end," said Barker.
"I reported the harassment to multiple supervisors and co-workers,
but nobody did anything to protect me until I hired Franklin Law and filed the lawsuit." The lawsuit
received coverage from numerous news outlets.
Once the lawsuit became public, members of the SWAT team rallied
to support Barker with one member of the SWAT team interrupting a
meeting of the Sheriff's Office's leadership and telling the
Undersheriff that the entire SWAT team was going to resign if
Moniot was not immediately put on a leave of absence. Other women
victimized by men at San Mateo
County Sheriff's Office also contacted Barker and her
attorneys to share their own experiences of sexual harassment and
discrimination at the Sheriff's Office and to express their support
of Barker and her lawsuit. "Carryn was the tip of the spear; she
had the support of so many women and allies at the Sheriff's Office
and across the state," said Franklin.
After nearly 2 years of litigation, San Mateo County agreed to pay Barker
$8,000,000. This $8,000,000 settlement is believed to be one of
the largest settlements for a single-plaintiff sexual harassment
case in California history. "This
lawsuit was a win for not only Carryn
Barker, but also for the many other women who have endured
sexual harassment and discrimination at the Sheriff's Office," said
Franklin. "Hopefully this will lead San
Mateo County to clean up the Sheriff's Office and to start
protecting women from harassment and discrimination—and make them
feel safe to report such illegal conduct when it happens."
Carryn Barker may be reached
through her attorneys, Zak Franklin
and Julianna Zalinski, at
contact@franklinlawpc.com
About Franklin
Law
Franklin Law was founded on the
belief that workers—not just wealthy corporations—deserve
exceptional legal representation. The firm was established by
attorneys who graduated from top law schools and who received
several years of training and experience at some of the country's
most prestigious law firms where they represented clients that
included Disney, Verizon, AT&T, Oracle, JP Morgan, Nationwide,
The Cheesecake Factory, and other companies that pay top dollar to
hire the best attorneys.
Now, Franklin Law's attorneys
focus on achieving excellent results for workers who are victims of
wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and
wage theft. In just four years, Franklin
Law has recovered over $20,000,000.00 for our clients.
Franklin Law P.C.
contact@franklinlawpc.com
www.franklinlawpc.com
(424) 258-5129
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SOURCE Franklin Law PC