Corrections officer claims former Vancouver cop sexually harassed her
Vancouver has offered $125,000 to a state corrections officer to settle a potential lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment by a former Vancouver Police Department officer.
Corrections officer Tanis Conroy served the city with a complaint in December, claiming that Jeff Wilken harassed her over several months in 2008, including placing thong underwear on her head while searching an offender’s home.
She also claimed Wilken used derogatory sexual terms, handcuffed her to a chair and pushed her into a men’s locker room and grabbed her by the throat.
The complaint said the events caused Conroy “lost income, emotional distress, pain and sleeplessness and other manifestations of stress.”
Conroy claimed that fellow officers did little to nothing upon witnessing her distress, that the city failed to supervise Wilken and it also failed to quickly investigate his alleged actions.
The complaint, which was not filed with the court, also names Wilken as a defendant. Wilken resigned from the police force in August, two months after Conroy filed a tort claim with the city.
Pending approval from the city council, Vancouver will settle with Conroy for $125,000 to avoid further legal fees and the potential that a jury could award her much more, Vancouver Assistant City Attorney Dan Lloyd said.
Juries have awarded anywhere from $75,000 to $3 million in similar cases, he said.
“The jury can award a lot of money for these types of cases if they find in the plaintiff’s favor,” Lloyd said.
Conroy’s settlement will be paid from the city’s risk fund, which is reserved for litigation, he said.
Allegations denied
The settlement would close a case fraught with allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct.
The underwear-on-the-head incident allegedly occurred during a May 2008 search of a Sifton-area home. According to Conroy, after she protested, Wilken replied: “I took them from the clean pile.”
The suit also alleged that Wilken had a loud verbal argument with Conroy, insisting in vulgar terms that Conroy had told him she wanted to sleep with him.
Wilken joined Vancouver police in 1997 after working for a police department in Illinois.
He was placed on paid administrative leave in September 2008 and there was an in-depth investigation of the allegations.
Conroy’s complaints were sent on to the Clark County prosecutors office, which declined to press criminal charges.
The internal investigation ended with Wilken’s resignation in September 2009.
In an August 2009 interview with The Columbian, Wilken admitted putting the underwear on Conroy’s head and handcuffing her to a chair.
But he denied some of the other allegations, including that he grabbed Conroy’s throat.
According to documents Wilken provided The Columbian, he told internal affairs investigators in January 2009 that Conroy gave no indication she was uncomfortable.
“She’s laughing, joking around, I’m joking with her, she’s receptive to it,” Wilken told investigators, according to a Jan. 6, 2009, transcript. “At no point did she state anything to the nature, either with a tone of voice or a word that was descriptive, to make me feel or believe that I’ve crossed the line.”
Additional claims
The city’s settlement does not resolve Conroy’s suit against Wilken, Lloyd said.
“I don’t even know if she’s going to proceed with claims against the individual (Wilken),” he said.
The Vancouver Police Department has been the target of several claims and lawsuits from current and former employees, including a $1.65 million discrimination settlement with former Officer Navin Sharma, another lawsuit filed by former Officer Chris Kershaw and tort claims filed by Cpl. Randy Braaksma and Sgt. David Henderson. Braaksma has been on paid administrative leave since last February.
