New details about allegations against Columbus official, $100K settlement. What to know.
Sexual harassment and retaliation accusations led to $100,000 being paid to a city employee to settle claims against Municipal Court Clerk Reginald Thompson and the Columbus Consolidated Government, according to documents obtained by the Ledger-Enquirer.
The Ledger-Enquirer reported last month that Columbus Council, without public discussion, unanimously approved CCG’s part of the settlement at the end of its Oct. 22 meeting after Thompson was accused of making repeated sexual remarks toward an employee.
A copy of the resolution the Ledger-Enquirer obtained from the Clerk of Columbus Council office shows Alicia Wells-Lewis, a former employee of the court, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging Thompson and CCG violated her federal rights. The alleged violations weren’t specified in the resolution.
But through a request under the Georgia Open Records Act, the Ledger-Enquirer received a copy of the EEOC charge filed by Wells-Lewis, who started working March 6, 2023, as a deputy clerk in the Municipal Court. She was “constructively discharged” from that job Feb. 29, according to the document.
The U.S. Department of Labor defines “constructive discharge” as a resignation or retirement that isn’t voluntary because “the employer created a hostile or intolerable work environment or has applied other forms of pressure or coercion.”
‘Severe and pervasive’ harassment
Thompson “continuously subjected” Wells-Lewis to “severe and pervasive” sexual harassment while she was employed by CCG, she alleges in the EEOC charge.
He would make “sexually harassing comments” to her “multiple times per week at the office,” according to the document.
“He told me that he wanted to have sex with me, complimented how I looked in my clothing (e.g., ‘You look good in those jeans’ and ‘I love that dress on you’), asked if he could come over to my house to have sex, and told me whenever his wife was out of town and invited me to his house to have sex,” Wells-Lewis says in the EEOC charge. “He frequently expressed his desire for physical sexual contact with me, making comments like: ‘I want to squeeze those thighs;’ ‘I need a hug;’ and ‘I wish I could touch you.’
“Anytime I took a day off or sick time, Mr. Thompson would tell me that he thought I was going to let him come over to my house to have sex. In every instance, I rejected Mr. Thompson’s inappropriate sexual advances by changing the subject.”
Harassing text messages also alleged
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of sexually harassing her in text messages.
For example, she alleges in the document that Thompson texted her Oct. 20, 2023, “I need to sex u.”
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of sexually harassing her in calls to her personal cellphone.
“At first, I answered his calls because I assumed he was calling to discuss work-related matters,” she said in the EEOC charge. “However, every time I took his calls, he would ask me for sex.
“Due to the continuous sexual harassment, I stopped taking Mr. Thompson’s calls in or around July 2023. He continued to call me, however, and when I did not answer, he would text me to ask me why I didn’t pick up the phone.”
‘Angry with me out of jealousy’
Wells-Lewis alleges that her rejection of Thompson caused him to become “angry with me out of jealousy whenever I talked to other men working in our office, including the high school-aged male intern.”
For example, according to the document, on or about Nov. 17, 2023, ”Mr. Thompson saw me speaking to the intern and later called me into his office and called me a ‘cougar’ and accused me of attempting to initiate a sexual/romantic relationship with the intern, which was false and offensive.”
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of using the office security camera system to watch her.
“On at least six occasions,” she says in the EEOC charge, “after Mr. Thompson had left the office for the day, he called and then texted me to tell me that he had ‘just seen me,’ meaning that he was watching me work via the security camera feed that he could access remotely.”
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of retaliating against her at work.
He did this by “yelling at me, falsely accusing me of poor performance, contacting Human Resources in a pretextual effort to have me fired, or trying to prevent me from using my accrued paid time off from work,” she says in the document.
‘Nobody can touch me’
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of sexually harassing other female employees, but she didn’t specify any incidents or the number of cases.
“Mr. Thompson made it clear to me that he believed himself to be above discipline, and would frequently say, ‘I’m an elected official. You, HR, nobody can touch me,’” she says in the EEOC charge.
Wells-Lewis alleged, on or about Dec. 12, 2023, a coworker informed her that Thompson “admitted to her that he had been sexually harassing me” and that he has “f----d up by sexually harassing me via text message, meaning there was written documentation of his unlawful workplace conduct. Mr. Thompson further informed (the coworker) that he was going to find a reason to fire me.”
The coworker told Wells-Lewis that Thompson also sexually harassed her, according to the EEOC charge.
“However, rather than assist me in reporting Mr. Thompson’s conduct to Human Resources or City officials, (the coworker) advised me to ‘start looking for a new job’ because Thompson was ‘trying to get rid of’ me,” Wells-Lewis says in the document.
Alleged threats to disrupt investigation
Wells-Lewis also accused Thompson of changing the office’s tardiness policy “without prior notice” and “writing me up” when she arrived on or about Feb. 29, 2024.
“His write-up claimed that I had been tardy four times during the month of February, even though I had followed the established policy by calling the office to advise that I would be late and then skipping lunch or working late to make up the time I missed,” she says in the EEOC charge. “When I pointed this out to Mr. Thompson, he yelled at me and said that he had changed the policy.”
After she filed her complaint to Human Resources, “I subsequently learned that Mr. Thompson threatened Municipal Court employees not to cooperate with HR’s investigation,” Wells-Lewis says in the document.
Thompson denies wrongdoing
Thompson’s lawyer, David Helmick of the Columbus firm Waldrep, Mullin & Callahan, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Wednesday, “Clerk Thompson, as stated in prior reporting, strongly denies these allegations. This matter is resolved and will not be tried in the media. Clerk Thompson and his office are focused on delivering excellent services to the Municipal Court and the Muscogee County community.”
CCG and Thompson settled the matter before any response to the allegations was due, Carter Schondelmayer, the attorney from the Columbus law firm Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford representing CCG told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“The CCG has no further comment for the article,” Schondelmayer told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Tuesday.
In the Nov. 5 election, Thompson retained his position for another four-year term without opposition. He first was elected in 2020, when he ran unopposed. His predecessor was Vivian Creighton Bishop, who retired after 28 years as the court’s clerk.
The settlement “shall not be construed as an admission that the CCG or Thompson acted wrongfully with any respect” to Wells-Lewis, the agreement says. “The CCG and Thompson specifically deny any liability to or wrongful act against” Wells-Lewis, the agreement says.
Although the council approved $95,000 for the settlement, the payments to Wells-Lewis total $100,000, according to the agreement:
- $60,000 from CCG to Wells-Lewis for “the emotional distress compensatory damages stemming from the allegations,” the agreement says.
- $35,000 from CCG to Wells-Lewis for her attorney fees and expenses. She was represented by the Atlanta law firm Buckley Bala Wilson Mew.
- $5,000 from Thompson to Wells-Lewis for “the emotional distress compensatory damages stemming from the allegations,” the agreement says.
In exchange for those payments, Wells-Lewis agreed to file documents for dismissal of her EEOC complaint and to not file any other complaints or lawsuits against Thompson or CCG for actions “for actions taken up to and including” the effective date of the agreement, which was Oct. 30, according to the settlement.
On Aug. 19, Wells-Lewis filed an ante-litem notice, which Georgia law requires before suing a governmental entity to provide time for investigation and to explore a possible resolution without involving a court. By that time, she was working for the Internal Revenue Service.
In response to the IRS background check it does for all new employees, Thompson instructed the Municipal Court chief deputy clerk to not recommend Wells-Lewis for employment, Wells-Lewis alleges in the ante-litem notice.
The ante-litem notice also informed CCG that Wells-Lewis sought economic, compensatory and punitive damages of more than $1 million. If the matter wasn’t resolved through mediation, she intended “to file a lawsuit in order to redress her injuries,” the notice says.
The settlement includes a mutual non-disparagement clause. That means Wells-Lewis and Thompson agreed to not make or solicit any comments “that may be considered derogatory or detrimental to the good name and business reputation” of each other.
This story was originally published November 13, 2024 at 12:00 PM.
