A former employee is suing the town of Bargersville and the former clerk-treasurer, saying she was terminated due to her age and that she had spoken out against wrongdoing.
Beth Ann Sweet filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the southern district of Indiana. She is asking for a jury trial and to be awarded damages, attorney fees and any other relief appropriate.
Attorney Bill Barrett, who is representing the town, declined to comment about the case since it is ongoing. The town has not yet filed a response to her complaint.
Civil lawsuits are the opinion of the person filing them and can be refuted in court.
According to her lawsuit, Sweet had worked for the town for 16 years, with most of her time spent collecting overdue payments on utility bills, the filing said.
Before 2014, she had consistently received excellent performance reviews, the lawsuit said.
In 2014, Sweet’s job was changed to customer service representative and she was responsible for the disconnect program, including preparing reports. Sweet’s lawsuit claims her supervisor began to harass her because of her age and experience, including directing other employees to take photos of Sweet clocking in and out, yelling at her and demeaning her, denying her vacation request and causing her to receive poor performance reviews, the filing said.
Sweet also claimed in her lawsuit that former clerk-treasurer Steve Longstreet became upset with her when the utilities for a contractor he worked with were disconnected, according to the filing. The builder had done work for Longstreet in his personal real estate business, the lawsuit said. Last month, Longstreet decided to retire early for family and health insurance reasons.
According to her lawsuit, Longstreet told Sweet in a meeting that she needed to learn who should be disconnected and who shouldn’t, and that the contractor was not the same as someone “on welfare” or “a single mother with four kids working at McDonald’s that failed to pay her utility bill,” the lawsuit said.
Sweet told Longstreet she didn’t think that was fair and the rules apply to everyone, the lawsuit said.
Sweet also claimed in her lawsuit that Longstreet had tenants come to town offices to pay their rent, which Sweet would collect for him during work hours. Sweet told her manager she did not feel comfortable collecting the rent payments for Longstreet’s personal business during work hours, the filing said.
In January, Sweet met with Longstreet, her manager and another town official and was told she was being terminated and that her job was becoming increasingly automated, the lawsuit said.
Sweet was offered a severance package, but declined it. She learned three other employees who were also over the age of 40 were terminated and younger employees were hired, the lawsuit said.
In her lawsuit, Sweet claims she was discriminated against because of her age and that she faced retaliation for her First Amendment right to speak out about something that concerned her as a citizen, the lawsuit said.
Sweet’s attorney, Jonathan Bont, declined to comment except to say he hoped the case would be resolved.
