Presley v. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction

675 F. App'x 507
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 6, 2017
Docket16-3563
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 675 F. App'x 507 (Presley v. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Presley v. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction, 675 F. App'x 507 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge.

Denise. Presley, a nurse at Toledo Correctional Institution, brought race and sex discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., against her former employer, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC). Presley alleged that ODRC discriminated against her on the basis of race by failing to promote her, engaging in disparate disci-’ pline, improper reassignment and constructive discharge, and also discriminated against her on the basis of sex. The district court granted summary judgment to ODRC. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

Denise Presley began working as a registered nurse in 2003, first at Toledo Hospital, and then at the Ohio Department of Mental Health’s Northwest Hospital. Presley was terminated from Northwest Hospital in March 2012, after a series of disciplinary incidents, many involving patient care. Presley’s union challenged her removal, and she entered into a settlement agreement that, among other conditions, rescinded her removal and transferred her to the Toledo Correctional Institution (ToCI), under an extended probationary period of one year. Presley began working at ToCI in May 2012 and successfully completed her probationary period.

In July 2013, Presley was given counseling for improperly handling a pill call. Presley disputes that the counseling was warranted, and states that a white nurse handling a pill call at the same time and in the same manner was not given similar counseling. In August, Presley was investigated for several errors: mishandling a patient’s medication, failing to fully document an inmate’s medication order, and arriving at work two hours late. Presley asserts that she actually properly handled the medication and documentation in the first two instances, but that the Medication Administration Record' (MAR) was miss- *509 mg. The MAR was later found, and Presley alleges that she was blamed after a second shift nurse re-wrote the order incorrectly.

Presley received a pre-disciplinary conference notice for the medication issue in October 2013. As part of the notice, she received several documents detailing her medical errors. Presley alleges that in preparing this investigatory interview report, supervisor Kim Henderson reviewed documents that also showed a white nurse, Hannah Godsey, had made the same errors concerning dates or durations or prescriptions, but that Henderson ignored those errors in favor of pursuing an investigation into Presley. Presley appeared at her disciplinary hearing with her union representative. A settlement agreement, finalized in April 2014 following Presley’s return from medical leave, ultimately imposed a one-day working suspension without loss of pay.

With Laura Burkin’s resignation as Nurse Supervisor in August 2013, a white nurse, Hannah Godsey, was placed into the position on a temporary basis and the job opening was posted for a permanent replacement. Presley alleges that while the formal announcement of Godsey’s placement in the interim position came in August, the decision was made at least as early as June or July, when Tara Pinski, Labor Relations Specialist, announced that Godsey would be Burkin’s replacement. Presley states that when she asked another nurse why the interim position was not posted to allow everyone to apply, she was told that the “decision about the Interim position had already been made.” Presley discussed the issue with her union representative, but took no further action,

When the permanent position was posted, it was listed as a bargaining unit position. According to Presley, this was typical for the same position at other ODRC medical facilities, though she acknowledges that it was not a bargaining unit position when held by Burkin. ToCI states that the position was always intended to be exempt, and characterizes the bargaining unit position posting as a “typographical error.” Presley asserts that as the most senior person in the RN’s union, she had a right to the bargaining unit position based on her seniority.

She applied for the position and interviewed with a panel of other nurses and administrators. Presley later testified that if she thought Nurse Supervisor was an exempt position and she would no longer have union protection, she probably would not have applied for the position. Presley states that she did not have any problem with the interview, did not experience any hostility from the interviewers, and that the issue of whether the position was in the bargaining unit did not arise. During the interview, Warden Edward Sheldon told Presley that she performed well, though he later testified that other interviewers and her supervisors told him that she had a reputation as a “[mjarginal employee” and “average RN.” (R. 24 at Pa-gelD 938) Jamey Wildman, one of the interviewers and also a nurse at ToCI who worked as a Quality Improvement Coordinator (QIC), testified that he was “not impressed” with Presley’s nursing skills or interactions with co-workers based on their prior experience together.

In November 2013, Godsey was appointed to the permanent Nurse Supervisor position. Wildman testified that despite her position as interim Nurse Supervisor, it was not “preordained” that Godsey would receive the promotion. Presley filed a charge of discrimination with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), stating that she “bid on a union supervisor position [and] had an inter *510 view,” she was the “top seniority RN at the facility,” and she was the best candidate for the position based on her seniority and experience. Her complaint alleged that the job had instead gone to a “younger white female with less seniority.” (R. 22-59 at PagelD 649)

Presley alleges that Godsey admitted, during her deposition, to making medical errors in failing to provide dates and durations on medical records, and was not disciplined for these errors either before or after her promotion. Presley claims that these errors are generally known by other nurses at the facility and that Godsey’s admissions reflect a serious lapse of knowledge. Godsey recalls being disciplined twice during her time at ODRC: first, for failing to count syringes and medications, and second, for failing to advise her supervisor that a QIC had a restriction on his license. Presley alleges, based on the testimony of another ToCI nurse, that Godsey was “lazy, very lax in her duties, and mostly played around, flirting and socializing.” (R. 31-4 at PagelD 1503) Presley further states that management was aware of God-sey’s improper behavior, because it was reported to her then-supervisor, Glen Tap-pan. Presley herself reported some of God-sey’s errors to Wildman in his capacity as QIC.

During this time, Michael Mathews, a white male nurse at ToCI, was also being reported and investigated for mistakes. Presley alleges that Mathews made errors such as failing to give inmates their medication, improperly recording medication given to an inmate who had been discharged, and falsifying documents. In March 2014, Godsey, Mathews’s supervisor, prepared an investigatory report covering an allegation that Mathews had been caught sleeping during his shift.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gary McNeal v. City of Blue Ash, Ohio
117 F.4th 887 (Sixth Circuit, 2024)
Moody v. Ohio Dept. of Mental Health & Addiction Servs.
2021 Ohio 4578 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
675 F. App'x 507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/presley-v-ohio-department-of-rehabilitation-correction-ca6-2017.