State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s workplace is embroiled in a lawsuit with a former worker who claims he was pressured to resign amid threats to his life however attorneys for the state say sexually harassed a coworker, courtroom paperwork present.
On the coronary heart of the dispute is a Sept. 27, 2024 assembly between the worker, Kehinde Olatunji Adedeji, and two officers from DiZoglio’s workplace, Normal Counsel Michael Leung-Tat and Govt Deputy State Auditor Stephen Lisauskas, that ended with Adedeji’s departure.
In courtroom paperwork filed in Suffolk County Civil Court docket, Adedeji alleges he was coerced into resigning his place as an auditor as a result of he suspected the 2 officers “may kill me on that day in the office at One Ashburton Place.”
“Against my wish, I resigned my employment to avoid bloodshed of me, an innocent person — I was forced to resign on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024,” Adedji, who’s representing himself in courtroom, wrote in preliminary courtroom paperwork filed Oct. 30, 2024.
However Assistant Legal professional Normal Shweta Mahajan Sethi, who’s representing DiZoglio’s workplace, mentioned the assembly was the fruits of “troubling behavior” that began shortly after Adedeji was employed as an auditor in October 2023.
Leung-Tat and Lisauskas met with Adedeji to debate his future employment after Adedeji was accused of a litany of misconduct.
That features posting recordings of coworkers on social media with out permission, pressuring feminine interns to attach with him on social media, making an attempt to make use of his place to affect legislation enforcement officers, operating a aspect enterprise, and sexually harassing a colleague within the males’s toilet, Sethi wrote in courtroom paperwork. Adedeji has denied the allegations.
Even earlier than the assembly began, Sethi mentioned in courtroom paperwork, Adedeji requested to convey his lawyer to “avoid [a] bloody physical fight” and “made threats to retaliate against the employee who reported the bathroom incident and those who investigated the incident.”
“Nevertheless, during the Sept. 27th meeting, Leung-Tat and Lisauskas engaged with [Adedeji], explaining possible avenues forward, including resignation, and potential termination,” Sethi wrote in courtroom paperwork. “Despite assurances that [Adedeji] had time to consider his options, [Adedeji] demanded a scrap of paper so he could immediately resign.”
In his personal courtroom paperwork, Adedeji recounts a special model of the assembly. Leung-Tat held an “already typed letter of termination” whereas Lisauskas held a “plain sheet of paper,” Adedeji wrote in courtroom filings.
“[Leung-Tat] echoed thus, ‘You have the options to resign your employment right now or we get your employment terminated.’ He further stated ‘If you resign, it is easy for you to still work with other government agencies in Massachusetts but if we terminate your employment, you can never work for any government agency in Massachusetts.’”
Adedeji mentioned he defined to Leung-Tat and Lisauskas that the workplace surroundings is “an intellectual and professional work setting,” everybody works arduous to get audit reviews prepared, and there was “no reason to create a smoke where there was no fire.”
“They just wanted to create problems where there was no problem,” Adedeji wrote in courtroom paperwork.
Sethi, the lawyer representing the State Auditor’s Workplace, mentioned that after Adedeji resigned, he continued to contact the workplace, together with sending emails on to DiZoglio.
Adedeji additionally despatched emails to different staff that used language they “found increasingly threatening such as telling Leung-Tat that ‘[l]ies against [the plaintiff] could carry generational consequences,’ which OSA employees understood as a threat to Leung-Tat’s children,” in line with Sethi.
The Workplace of the State Auditor issued a no trespass order in opposition to Adedeji on Oct. 22, 2024, Sethi wrote in courtroom paperwork.
Adedeji requested a decide to right away reinstate his employment, pay him misplaced wages as much as the time of his reinstatement, and compensate him $500,000 for “forced termination, harassments, hates, lies, slanders, discriminations, and defamations,” in line with courtroom paperwork. He has additionally filed the same case in federal courtroom, information present.
In a November ruling, Suffolk County Affiliate Justice David Deakin denied an emergency order from Adedeji that requested the courtroom to power the Auditor’s Workplace to permit him to proceed working whereas the case performed out in courtroom and pay misplaced wages as much as that date.
Deakin mentioned despite the fact that paperwork and proof submitted by the State Auditor’s Workplace didn’t set up that it might win the case, it did “persuade me that Mr. Adedeji has not established a likelihood that he will succeed on his claims.”
“That is particularly true because, aside from his own denials, Mr. Adedeji has adduced no evidence to contradict the material submitted by the State Auditor’s Office. Further, the heated language in emails from Mr. Adedeji to personnel at the State Auditor’s Office … suggests a degree of intemperance on Mr. Adedeji’s part that is consistent with some of the office’s allegations of misconduct against him,” Deakin wrote in his ruling.
Adedeji appealed Deakin’s ruling this week, arguing in a courtroom doc that he made no “secret recording” of different employees at any time, he reserves the “right to be angry without being violent,” and there’s no proof of sexual harassment.
Legal professionals representing the State Auditor’s Workplace filed a movement to dismiss the case in late December which Adedeji opposed, in line with courtroom information.
A spokesperson for the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace declined to touch upon the case and referred the Herald to courtroom paperwork.
In an e-mail to the Herald, Leung-Tat acknowledged that Adedeji beforehand labored for the State Auditor’s Workplace for a “short time” and resigned in 2024.
“He filed with the courts a request to be reinstated, and a judge denied his request for an emergency order. Our office has filed a motion to dismiss and looks forward to its resolution, however, as this is a personnel matter, we are unable to comment further,” Leung-Tat mentioned.
In an emailed assertion, Adedeji requested the Herald “not to publish any story” in regards to the case as a result of the matter was already “before a competent court of justice” and “all the allegations were false.”
“I never sexually harassed anyone in the restroom neither did I contact any intern. Let the intern provide the means by which I contacted her — Call, text or voicemail and the message sent to him or her. I am 100% sure there was none,” Adedeji mentioned within the e-mail.
In a Sept. 24, 2024 letter to Adedeji, Leung-Tat and Human Assets Director Rhonda Edwards mentioned the State Auditor’s Workplace “became aware” in June 2024 of a dialog Adedeji allegedly had with one other worker within the males’s restroom.
After being requested how his weekend was, Adedeji allegedly described his intercourse life to the worker, in line with the letter, which was included in courtroom paperwork. Adedeji was interviewed as a part of an investigation into the incident, in line with the letter.
“When asked if you stated ‘I (expletive)-ed her so good’ to the OSA employee when describing your sexual activity, you stated to Human Resources that, ‘I can’t remember, maybe I said something or maybe they said something. People just say all kinds of things in that bathroom,’” the letter mentioned.
Within the letter to Adedeji, Leung-Tat and Edwards mentioned Adedeji additionally advised them that within the males’s toilet individuals “talk like boys.”
“You also explained that when employees get into the bathroom they talk about all types of ‘naughty stuff, we guys, we deal like boys inside that bathroom,’” the letter mentioned.
In a separate courtroom submitting, Adedeji mentioned there isn’t a proof of sexual harassment in opposition to “anyone by me” on the State Auditor’s Workplace.
“All the noise about sexual harassment were false. They were just ‘small talk’ or ‘boys talk’ in the restroom. Pardon me. Sometimes I use the bathroom and restroom interchangeably just as I use restaurant, canteen, and cafeteria interchangeably,” Adedeji wrote within the courtroom submitting.
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