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A Massachusetts judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Office of the State Auditor, thwarting a former worker who claimed he was forced to resign “to avoid bloodshed” after he was accused of assaulting a co-worker in the lavatory of being sexually harassed within the office.
Judge David A. Deakin sided with State Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office and located that a grievance filed by former State Auditor Kehinde Olatunji Adedeji in Suffolk Superior Court didn’t meet legal standards.
Adedeji's lawsuit stemmed from his Sept. 27 meeting with two officials from DiZoglio's office, General Counsel Michael Leung-Tat and Deputy State Comptroller Stephen Lisauskas. At the top of the meeting, Adedeji said he felt he had no alternative but to resign.
“As I suspected that they might kill me in the office that day…against my will, I terminated my employment to prevent bloodshed on me, an innocent person,” he wrote in his grievance originally filed in October. The first reported news of the lawsuit.
Adedeji represented himself in court and named DiZoglio's office and a handful of employees in his grievance. He requested an annulment of his resignation and $555,000 in compensation for “the forced termination of my employment, harassment, hatred, lies, slander, discrimination and slander.” [sic].”
Deakin previously rejected Adedeji's application for an injunction reinstating his employment. Reached for comment, Leung-Tat referred to Deakin's previous order as a source of “relevant context” for Adedeji's grievance and allegations.
“As this is a personnel issue, we are limited in our ability to comment on this matter,” Leung-Tat said.
In an email to Boston.com, Adedeji called Deakin's dismissal of the lawsuit an “injustice.”
“I will appeal the verdict or pursue it in federal court,” he promised. Adedeji has filed the same grievance in federal court and has also indicated he’s in search of to take his case to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
The auditor's office responds
In court filings, the Office of the State Auditor alleged that Adedeji “began exhibiting disturbing behavior” shortly after he was hired in October 2023.
DiZoglio's office accused Adedeji of failing to reveal his ownership of a charter transportation company and said he made a Facebook post “in which he appeared to use his position as a state auditor to influence the actions of the Massachusetts State Police and Lynn Police.” “. The office also alleged that Adedeji filmed himself and his colleagues without their consent and posted the videos on social media.
For his part, Adedeji said he disclosed his small business and shot the videos outside of working hours. The clips, he claimed, “connoted no negativity; Rather, it shows a happy, healthy and relaxed staff.”
In court documents, the auditor's office also alleged that Adedeji “continued to engage in inappropriate behavior in the workplace to the point that most other auditors in the office refused to work with him and female interns expressed discomfort with his attempts.” “To connect with them through social media.”
In one notable incident, Adedeji allegedly described his sexual exploits in “detail” to a co-worker while within the restroom, in keeping with the comptroller's office, which accused him of attributing the comments to “boy talk” and threatening to retaliate against the employee who reported his behavior and those that investigated the incident.
He allegedly told human resources that employees had been talking about all varieties of “naughty things” within the restroom, adding, “Us boys act like boys in this restroom,” the auditor's office said. Adedeji has denied allegations of sexual harassment.
“I deserve justice”
Leung-Tat and Lisauskas met with Adedeji on Sept. 27 to debate the long run of his employment and explained that his path forward included resignation and possible termination, the auditor's office said. Despite assurances that he had time to think about his options, Adedeji reportedly demanded “a piece of paper so that he could resign immediately.”
But Adedeji had a unique memory of the meeting. He claims that Leung-Tat was holding a typed letter of resignation while Lisauskas was holding a plain piece of paper.
“[Leung-Tat] repeated the following: “You have the option to terminate your employment immediately or we will have your employment terminated.” He continued: “If you resign, it will be easy for you to continue to work with other government agencies in Massachusetts, but if we your If you terminate your employment, you will never be able to work for a government agency in Massachusetts again,” Adedeji wrote in his grievance.
DiZoglio's office said Adedeji continued to contact the office after his resignation, using “language that staff increasingly found threatening.” The Office of the State Auditor issued a trespassing order against Adedeji in October.
Adedeji, in one among his later court filings, quoted the Bible and argued: “As a Christian, I have reserved the right to be angry without being violent.”
He added: “Instead of violence, I turned to the Suffolk Supreme Court for help and justice. I understand that the courts are not made for animals, but for damaged people like me. I deserve justice, sir.”
image credit : www.boston.com
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