Vredevelt v. Geo Group, Inc.

145 F. App'x 122
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 5, 2005
Docket04-1435
StatusUnpublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 145 F. App'x 122 (Vredevelt v. Geo Group, Inc.) 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
Vredevelt v. Geo Group, Inc., 145 F. App'x 122 (6th Cir. 2005).

Opinions

OPINION

REEVES, District Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Erica Vredevelt appeals the decision of the district court granting summary judgment to Defendant-Appellee The GEO Group, Inc. on her gender discrimination and sexual harassment claims pursuant to Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, M.C.L. § 37.2101 et seq., and intentional infliction of emotional distress claim under Michigan common law. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND

The GEO Group, Inc., formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp. (“GEO”), operates the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility (the “Facility”) in Baldwin, Michigan, under a contract with the Michigan Department of Corrections. The Facility is a maximum security youth detention prison housing inmates ranging in age from 13 to 16 years. GEO hired Vredevelt as a Corrections Officer (“CO”) out of its first training academy in 1999. She worked at the Facility until April 2002 when she left to take a new job. Shortly after beginning her employment, Vredevelt became a member of the Facility’s Corrections Emergency Response Team (“CERT”) — a small unit of COs that responds to critical incidents at the Facility involving inmates.

As a CERT team member, Vredevelt received additional compensation of $20 to $30 per month. At the Facility, COs are required to work at various posts, including the Medical Department, Visitation, Recreation, ARV (emergency response vehicle), Control Center, Housing Pods (inmate residence areas), Utility (a rotating post that helps where needed), Tower (gun towers surrounding the Facility’s perimeter), Checkpoint, and Segregation (a housing unit reserved for violent and disruptive [125]*125inmates). GEO has the authority to assign a CO to any post. Specifically, the Collective Bargaining Agreement between GEO and the CO’s Union provides that “the direction of the working force ... shall be vested exclusively with the employer.” It further provides that GEO “shall have the right ... to determine work schedules and type of work.”

For the first six months of her employment, Vredevelt worked in Segregation. Following that assignment, she worked Utility for over a year. She also worked without objection or incident in the Medical Department, Recreation, the Towers and the Housing Pods as those duties were assigned to her.

As a CERT member, Vredevelt was required to respond quickly to critical incidents involving inmates. GEO stored all of the CERT equipment in a locker room adjacent to the men’s bathroom. Upon notification of an incident, team members would gather their gear (leg pads, elbow pads, a helmet, gas mask and shoulder pads) from the locker room and change clothing and equipment prior to addressing the incident. GEO contends that, as a matter of personal preference, Vredevelt would change her clothing and equipment in the men’s locker room rather than carry the equipment to the women’s restroom located approximately 20 to 30 feet away. Vredevelt claims that, because the equipment was too heavy and because it was difficult to maneuver past the men, she was forced to change in the men’s locker room so that she could respond to emergencies in a timely manner.

In 2001, Vredevelt applied for a promotion to sergeant. In applying for this position, she was required to submit a letter of interest and participate in a Promotion Board interview. Vredevelt was also required to deliver an oral presentation and complete a written exercise. Although Vredevelt was not selected, she acknowledges that the person who received the position, Thomas DeWolf, was a qualified candidate.

At the end of 2001, Vredevelt took a second job outside the Facility. However, she was permitted by the Warden to work three days a week at the Facility to accommodate her work schedule.1 Subsequently, in February or March 2002, Vredevelt was removed from the CERT team by Deputy Warden Daniel Bosse. According to Bosse, Vredevelt was removed from the team because she could only work three days a week and GEO could not afford to have one of its limited number of CERT members unavailable on other work days. Vredevelt never sought reversal of this decision from Warden Frank Elo. Instead, approximately one week after her removal from the CERT team, she left her job at the Facility and started working as a full-time deputy with the Ottawa County Sheriffs Department. Vredevelt testified that she made more money at this job than she did at the Facility.

Before resigning, Vredevelt wrote to GEO to announce her intentions and reasoning:

This is a letter regarding my resignation from Wackenhut Corporation/Miehigan Juvenile Prison. I Erica R. Vredevelt will be leaving WCC after 2 weeks of service to further my career elsewhere. I am grateful and thankful of the time and effort Wackenhut has given me, my thanks goes to all those officers above and below me in rank who have taken time to train and educate me in the field of corrections. The knowledge and skills I have learned here will help me in [my] future career. [126]*126I leave WCC with a great respect for the staff and corrections officers. They put forth a good effort in teamwork and keeping company standards and mission statements. There is no reason I would not come back to work for WCC in the future. Once again I thank all those who helped me become the corrections officer I am today.

On October 1, 2003, Vredevelt and nine other plaintiffs filed a Joint Amended Complaint against GEO alleging gender discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation claims under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, M.C.L. § 37.2101 et seq. (“MCRA”). In addition, the group asserted claims for defamation, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress under Michigan common law. In her Joint Amended Complaint, Vredevelt asserted five claims against the Defendant: (1) disparate treatment gender discrimination (Count 1); (2) hostile work environment (Count II); (3) retaliation (Count III); (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress (Count IV); and (5) false imprisonment (Count V). Subsequently, Vredevelt abandoned her false imprisonment and retaliation claims. Two of the ten plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their claims and six of the ten settled them claims for nominal amounts. The district court dismissed the claims of the remaining two plaintiffs (including Vredevelt) on summary judgment. That dismissal is the subject of the present appeal.

Vredevelt’s gender discrimination claim is based on the contention that she and other women were never assigned to the best post positions and that she was improperly removed from the CERT team. She also contends that she was passed over for the sergeant job despite being more qualified than the male CO who received the promotion. In addition, Vredevelt claims that she and the other female CERT members were not provided with a separate changing facility and, therefore, were forced to change in front of male CERT officers.

In support of her sexual harassment claim, Vredevelt alleged that GEO employees — primarily Deputy Warden Bosse— made comments that were offensive. These comments included:

1. Bosse allegedly told Vredevelt that she should be home “barefoot and pregnant.”
2. Bosse allegedly told Vredevelt that she was incapable of performing utility or transport after she went part time.
3.

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145 F. App'x 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vredevelt-v-geo-group-inc-ca6-2005.