Former officer sues Reminderville police chief for sexual harassment and gender discrimination

REMINDERVILLE, Ohio (WOIO) - A local police chief and his town are being sued over sexual harassment and gender discrimination claims.

The former officer who filed the suit was fired after her attorney says she complained to management about her boss.

Attorney Brian Spitz says Cara Wilson left a higher-paying job to become a police officer in Reminderville, a small town in Summit County.

“It was her childhood dream to one day do this,” Spitz said.

However, after she started her new job, a lawsuit alleges Police Chief Jefferey Buck demanded he go through her phone. He then commented on pictures he found of her, saying he was picturing her naked, the suit alleges.

The suit also says he embarrassed her in front of others when he found out she was dating an older officer from another department.

“He commented, ‘had I known you were interested in older men, I would have tried harder to to F*** you myself.' That’s just outrageous,” Spitz said.

Wilson complained about her chief’s alleged inappropriate behavior. She says she also confronted him for using the "N" word to describe African American students.

Then, the suit says the department moved to terminate Wilson, without ever formally disciplining her for anything, violating its own policy.

The city, however, passed a resolution to fire her, stating she had been dishonest.

“That one word, just putting that one word in there prevents any other police department from hiring her, because it will be used against her by any potential criminal defendant in court. It would keep her from testifying in court,” Spitz said.

19 News reached out to Chief Buck last week by email.

We never received a reply, so we called his office today. We were told he would be tied up for a while.

We then stopped by an hour later, and were told Buck was on vacation this week.

Spitz says he’s hoping this suit will prevent future cases here.

“We want to affect change to prevent this from happening to other women," he said.

Spitz says Wilson is hoping to continue her career in law enforcement eventually. So, while this situation gets sorted out she’s currently working in a volunteer position to keep up with her certifications.

19 News reached out to the city of Reminderville as well.

It’s law director responded late Wednesday afternoon, saying she couldn’t comment, because of the pending lawsuit.

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