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A federal court jury has found that Weber County did not retaliate against a justice court clerk who went to the news media with allegations of sexual harassment by a judge.
A federal court jury found that Weber County and its now-former commissioners did not decide to close the Weber County court and merge with the Roy court in 2010 in order to eliminate Marcia Eisenhour's job because she went public with allegations against then-Justice Court Judge Craig Storey.
Susan Dunn, Weber County's trial attorney, said evidence showed that county officials had been contemplating merging the courts in order to save money after Ogden opened its own justice court, causing revenue to the county court to fall drastically.
"It was absolutely the right thing for the jury to do," said Dunn of the verdict reached Friday. "There was no evidence of retaliation against her for going to the press."
It was the second trial in federal court on the issue. In April of last year a jury awarded Eisenhour $276,503, after jurors found that Storey sexually harassed her and violated her right to equal protection. Jurors also said Weber County must pay more than $33,000 for violation of the state's Whistleblower Act.
But U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups overturned the county portion of the verdict and ordered a new trial on that issue. Waddoups found that the jury acted inconsistently in finding a violation of the Whistleblower Act, but not of her free speech rights based on the same evidence.
The verdict in the first trial against Storey individually remains in force, though Waddoups tossed out the amount awarded to her for economic losses while allowing the $188,444 award for emotional distress.
Eisenhour, who worked at the court for 24 years, said Storey began sexually harassing her in 2008 and, when she rejected his demands, he placed unreasonable work demands or her.
The state's judicial conduct commission investigated the allegations but found no misconduct by the judge. Eisenhour went to press with her allegations in 2009 and sued in federal court in 2010.