Former CFO claims health center fired her for reporting harassment

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Updated: March 2, 2012 8:16AM

The former chief financial officer for the East Chicago Community Health Center is suing the not-for-profit, claiming she was fired in retaliation for reporting the sexual harassment of CEO Dwayne Mitchell.

Tiffany Robertson, who filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, says in the suit that she was hired in August 2010 after a string of failed CFOs and passed her probationary period three months later. However, she told Gilda Orange, president of the board of directors, in February 2011 that both she and another employee had been sexually harassed by Mitchell. Orange responded that she would “pray about this” but also said that Mitchell had done so much for ECCHC, the lawsuit says.

ECCHC directed questions about the lawsuit to its attorney Jim Jorgensen, who could not be reached for comment.

ECCHC eventually found that Mitchell had committed nothing wrong, the suit says, but he later took retaliation against Robertson by adding to her work load. She filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint in July and was fired a few weeks later, according to the suit.

ECCHC tried to fight her unemployment claim on the grounds she was fired for just cause, the lawsuit says, but the state ruled against it.