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Jury awards former Tupelo bailiff $65K
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo) - 9/21/2014
Sept. 21--ABERDEEN -- A federal jury deliberated more than seven hours Friday before deciding the City of Tupelo retaliated against Letisha Mitchell and awarded her $65,000.
Mitchell, a former bailiff in Tupelo Municipal Court, sued the city for unspecified damages, alleging discrimination and retaliation.
The trial began Monday in U.S. District Court with Chief Judge Sharion Aycock presiding. After four days of witness testimony, the jury got the case around 4:30 p.m. Friday and discussed the matter well into the night.
"The jury came back just after midnight," said Mitchell's attorney Jim Waide. "They said the city had retaliated by basically forcing her out of her job. She has been out of work since January of 2013. The jury awarded her $35,000 in lost wages and $30,000 for mental anxiety."
Mitchell accused the city of disability discrimination and violating her civil rights by retaliating. She was working in the Tupelo Municipal Court in March 2010. She went to retrieve a prisoner for court and found the 250-pound man hanging from his T-shirt in the holding cell. While cutting him down, she injured her neck and back.
She claimed the city did not do enough to alter her duties to deal with her injuries. She also claims the city retaliated after she filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
While the jury sided with Mitchell on the retaliation charges, it sided with Tupelo on the issue of disability discrimination.
"We never believed her injuries were a disabling condition," said attorney John Hill, who represented Tupelo during the trial, "and the jury apparently agreed."
City attorney Ben Logan added that the city offered Mitchell several jobs that were within her physical restrictions but at a lower salary. Mitchell chose not to take any of the offers.
Logan, the city's in-house counsel, said he will meet with Hill next week to decide if the city will appeal the jury's decision.
william.moore@journalinc.com
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