HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The City and two members of the Huntsville Police Department have motioned to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed against them by a former dispatcher.
Federal court documents show that on August 4, the City of Huntsville, Police Chief Kirk Giles and Deputy Chief Michael Johnson motioned to dismiss a lawsuit against them, filed by former Huntsville Police Dispatcher Katrina Brady.
Brady filed the lawsuit in May, saying Giles, Johnson and the City engaged in discrimination against her that ultimately led to her firing.
The motion to dismiss states that the complaint “fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”
The dismissal document also states that Brady’s complaint is an “impermissible shotgun pleading that violates basic rules of pleading required…”
The document says Brady’s complaint is neither “short” nor “plain,” with 115 pages and roughly 536 separate paragraphs. The motion says this makes it a “textbook shotgun pleading.”
It also says that Brady “lacks standing for her claim under the PUMP Act as she seeksonly injunctive relief regarding the City’s policies, despite being no longer employedwith the City.”
The original complaint filed said that the discrimination began when Brady was pregnant in 2023, with claims that supervisors refused to make accommodations so that she could go to her doctor’s appointments and changed her work schedule to make it harder for Brady to go to those appointments.
Brady’s attorneys said that after she returned to work, a dispute over Brady being provided a place to pump breast milk led to her making a complaint against a supervisor. The document said this complaint led to retaliation from both her supervisor and the HPD command staff in general.
The document says this retaliation included disciplinary actions against Brady, which attorneys said do not reflect her behavior and instead stereotype her.
Attorneys also allege that Brady made several complaints herself, saying she was being retaliated against and the city failed to investigate those complaints. Furthermore, the document said the discrimination spanned from 2023 to 2024 and also constituted a conspiracy by police command staff.
“Plaintiff’s former employer, Defendant Huntsville, by and through HPD, HR, and Plaintiff’s supervisors and other decision makers, discriminated against Plaintiff in her employment terms and conditions based on her sex/gender both during Plaintiff’s pregnancy in 2023 and in 2024, during the time she was a nursing mother,” the federal complaint says.
You can read the full 115-page federal complaint below.
On August 5, the court set a telephone status conference hearing for September 4.
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