The Boston Water and Sewer Fee’s former human assets director Marie Theodat has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging that plenty of individuals, together with two ex-city councilors and the Herald, conspired in opposition to her to get her fired from her $202,873 job.
Theodat filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Boston Water and Sewer Fee, its govt director together with a number of present and former staff; two former metropolis councilors; Mayor Michelle Wu and her labor advisor; the Boston Herald, its govt editor and a reporter, in Suffolk Superior Court docket on Sept. 30.
The lawsuit was submitted by Theodat’s lawyer, Lana Sullivan, with a protracted litany of grievances Theodat claims she suffered throughout her employment with the Fee. One of many 14 counts is for “civil conspiracy” in opposition to former Boston Metropolis Councilors Michael Flaherty and Ricardo Arroyo, the Fee’s then-director of amenities and safety Sean Canty, and the Herald defendants.
“Defendants acted in various ways so as to bring about the illegal discharge of Theodat and attempted to hide the true motivations for their actions through the advancement of malicious, false, defamatory allegations designed to injure Theodat and destroy her career, her reputation, her family and her personal life,” the 216-page lawsuit states.
Theodat, who was paid a $202,873 annual wage with the Water and Sewer Fee — after a 61% pay hike and promotion since 2019 — was fired on April 18 after having been on paid administrative go away since Dec. 2 of final yr, per the Fee.
Theodat, 57, is embroiled in a number of civil lawsuits that embrace fraud allegations and was the topic of three inside investigations commissioned by her ex-employer, which the Fee says have been based mostly on “allegations of misconduct.”
Theodat alleges in her criticism that the civil motion in opposition to her — which incorporates allegations that she labored with kin to swindle her aged, dementia-ridden uncle out of his $1.1 million Dorchester dwelling, per an August 2024 Suffolk Superior Court docket lawsuit filed by Arroyo — is “frivolous,” and that the interior investigations have been “bogus.”
Theodat alleges that Arroyo defamed her with false claims within the lawsuit, and that the Herald did in order effectively by reporting on the matter. A last pre-trial convention deadline for the case is ready for Dec. 15.
Arroyo, when reached by the Herald final Wednesday, mentioned he was unaware of Theodat’s lawsuit.
Theodat’s lawsuit lists the Boston Herald, its govt editor Joe Dwinell, this reporter, and Media Information Group, which owns the Herald, as defendants.
“Ms. Theodat has filed a lawsuit which is so frivolous in so many obvious respects that we believe sanctions are appropriate,” Jeffrey Robbins, an lawyer for the Herald, mentioned in an announcement. “She has recognized not a single factor that the Herald printed that was false, as a result of all the things the Herald printed was demonstrably true.
“Given what transpired in the court proceeding about which the Herald reported accurately, it is difficult to understand why Ms. Theodat wants to call attention to this matter. In any event, we expect her lawsuit will be dismissed,” Robbins added.
The Herald’s reporting was based mostly on publicly out there Suffolk Superior Court docket paperwork and public information and statements from the Boston Water and Sewer Fee.
The Herald additionally reported on one other Suffolk Superior Court docket case that had been pending in opposition to Theodat, alleging that she stiffed a lady on a $75,000 mortgage mortgage.
A jury final November dominated in favor of the girl who filed go well with in 2020 in opposition to Theodat, after an almost weeklong trial, and ordered her to pay $72,000 to the plaintiff. Theodat has appealed the ruling.
Theodat was positioned on administrative go away and investigated after the decision, per the lawsuit, which quotes a communication from Peter Hunt, a defendant and the Fee’s chief working officer, who mentioned it “reflects behavior that is inconsistent with the Commission’s values.”
Theodat, a black Haitian lady, alleges that she had “long been targeted” and “had her work devalued because of her race, color, national origin, and sex, and because she had consistently tried to protect employees — and herself — from a racist, sexist, and toxic workplace culture at the Commission,” the lawsuit states.
Theodat alleges she was focused by the Fee’s authorized division, and that the “toxic” work surroundings worsened when Flaherty was employed as deputy normal counsel of the Fee. She claims she was focused by Flaherty and different Fee staff who sought to undermine and get her fired, the lawsuit states.
Theodat alleges, with out proof, that Flaherty, Canty and others have been leaking info to the Herald, leading to what she erroneously describes as “false and defamatory articles” that she believes led, partly, to the mayor’s choice to terminate her, per the lawsuit.
The lawsuit cites a communication from Theodat’s counsel to metropolis and fee officers, which states Mayor Wu and her senior labor adviser, Lou Mandarini, directed Henry Vitale, the Fee’s govt director, to fireside Theodat in an April 15 cellphone name.
The message from Wu, per the communication, was that “because there had been undue scrutiny in the papers” relating to the mayor, Fee and Theodat and her private civil issues, Vitale “either needed to fire Ms. Theodat so as to ‘stop the stories’ or Mr. Vitale himself would be terminated.”
Mayor Wu’s workplace and the Boston Water and Sewer Fee didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Flaherty was fired by the Fee final January resulting from what the quasi-public company mentioned was a “breakdown in the working relationship” between Flaherty and Vitale. He didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Theodat claims that Canty was surveilling her actions on Fee cameras, and “exhibited hostile and aggressive behavior toward her.” Canty was fired by the Fee, the lawsuit states.
Edward O’Sullivan, an lawyer for Canty, mentioned, “On the Theodat versus the world in state court” his shopper “denies all allegations.”
“These allegations against him are baseless and without merit,” O’Sullivan informed the Herald. “Mr. Canty is reviewing his options now and may file counterclaims against Ms. Theodat in the near future.”
