An Arkansas Municipal League attorney filed a response last week on behalf of Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry and other city officials, asking a judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by a former city employee.
Local attorney Tim Parker filed the civil lawsuit June 15 in Carroll County Circuit Court on behalf of Dannelle Tomarchio of Eureka Springs. Defendants are Berry, city finance director Lonnie Clark and city human resources coordinator Jerry King, along with the city.
Tomarchio worked in the city finance department from November 2019 to August 2021.
The suit alleges that Tomarchio was subjected to a hostile and abusive work environment. Tomarchio’s claim says King made repeated sexual references to Tomarchio and that when Tomarchio asked him to stop, King responded by screaming at Tomarchio and refusing to take directions from her as she was training him to perform his job.
Berry and Clark failed to stop the harassment, Tomarchio’s lawsuit says. Berry told Tomarchio that she could be moved to another office, the suit says, but Clark did not agree.
At one point, according to Tomarchio’s lawsuit, she was provided headphones “to help with the noise level,” Tomarchio wrote in a charging document submitted to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC dismissed the charge, advising Tomarchio that she waited too long to file it.
In the civil complaint, Parker asks for compensatory damages of $500,000 and punitive damages of $500,000 on Tomarchio’s behalf.
Municipal League attorney Amanda LaFever filed a response to Tomarchio’s claim on Thursday, Aug. 18. The response denies that Tomarchio was subjected to a hostile and abusive work environment. While acknowledging that Tomarchio asked to be moved to a different office, LaFever’s response denies that it was because of “sexual references” or “loud outbursts.”
LaFever’s response also argues that the defendants are entitled to immunity under state and federal law. Any damages Tomarchio suffered, LaFever’s response says, “are a direct and proximate result” of her own conduct.
“With respect to Plaintiff, Defendants acted reasonably, not maliciously, and in good faith,” LaFever’s response says.
LaFever also represents Berry and several other current and former city officials in a lawsuit filed by Parker in March 2021 on behalf of former city events coordinator Tracy Johnson and several other plaintiffs in connect with the city’s advertising and promotions commission.
