BUCYRUS — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently reported it found probable cause to believe the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office discriminated against a former employee because of a disability.
Former Crawford County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer Jason Tupps filed a complaint with the Cleveland Field Office of the EEO Commission in December 2017, claiming the sheriff’s office discriminated against him because of a disability and “in retaliation for engaging in protected activity when he was denied a reasonable accommodation and disciplined” violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Tupps said the complaint was a completely separate issue from allegations and criminal charges brought against Tupps from an incident in Galion in July 2018, where Tupps allegedly ordered a woman from her vehicle and held her at gunpoint while intoxicated.
The trial on the charges against Tupps is set to begin April 28 in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
“The EEOC investigation was started back in Dec. 2017, way before these alleged criminal charges against me in July of 2018,” Tupps said. “And the EEOC did a very thorough investigation that lasted almost two years before even making a determination. The EEOC complaint is not related to these alleged criminal issues.”
Tupps said the complaint stemmed from Tupps’ 2017 request to change shifts to accommodate medical issues being denied.
“For 21 years, I worked six days on, two days off,” Tupps said. “An employee who was getting ready to retire, worked four days and two days off, which would have given me more of a break instead of the six consecutive days.”
He said he made the request to change shifts through the jail commander and was denied. He said the jail commander then placed a new female hire onto the shift he requested.
Basically, they did not work with me and give me any type of accommodation under the ADA,” Tupps said.
Tupps said he was going through some hard times and “was diagnosed with some things” that he did not wish to disclose. He did, however, say he suffered from panic attacks, including one at the jail where the jail nurse determined emergency medical services needed called to transport Tupps to the hospital. Another attack occurred in the Crawford County Courthouse elevator, where the jail commander transported him to the hospital.
The health concerns he had led to Tupps making the shift change request.
An investigator with the EEO Commission determined there was merit to Tupps’ complaint.
“Growing out of the investigation, I have determined that the (sheriff’s office) maintains a medical leave policy that tends to discriminate against employees with disabilities by not providing them with additional medical leave as a reasonable accommodation and instead placing them on disability separation after the expiration of a six-month disability leave and discharging them if they do not return from separation within one year,” the report said.
It was determined the sick leave abuse policy discriminates against employees with disabilities “by placing them on suspected sick-leave abuse for a pattern of maintaining a zero or near-zero sick leave balance and/or for excessive absenteeism.”
The report said it was determined both instances are against the ADA.
In a statement, Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent said his office disagrees with the commission’s findings.
“The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office is aware the EEOC issued a determination regarding former employee Jason Tupps’ charge of discrimination. Mr. Tupps’ charge was filed with the EEOC in December 2017 and remained pending until February 2020,” Kent said. “The Sheriff’s Office adamantly disputes the EEOC’s determination and believes the EEOC’s conclusions are inconsistent with fact and law. The Sheriff’s Office maintains it acted lawfully and did not discriminate or retaliate against Mr. Tupps.”
Kent said the policies deemed discriminatory are not company policies, but rather terms agreed to between the sheriff’s office and its employees and their union.
“Additionally, the ‘policies’ referred to in the EEOC’s determination letter are not policies, but rather, negotiated provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and the union that represents Sheriff’s Office employees. The language included in these provisions is agreed-upon by the Sheriff’s Office, the union, and employee-members of the union,” Kent said. “These contractual provisions are consistent with the law.”
According to the determination from the EEOC, the sheriff’s office has the opportunity to voluntarily “remedy the unlawful employment practices found to have occurred.”
If the sheriff’s office fails to do so, court enforcement alternatives may be used, according to the EEOC report.