A federal judge has dismissed a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a Baltimore County employee who claimed she was fired after interrupting two top officials in a “compromising position” in a county office.
U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Motz said Miriam Grice failed to prove her firing had anything to do with the fact that she’s a woman.
Grice, 55, had claimed she was fired as a county claims manager in June 2007 after an “inopportune encounter” with County Administrative Officer Fred Homan and Assistant County Attorney Suzanne Berger after work hours.
The ruling “vindicates” Homan and Berger, said county spokesman Don Mohler.
“I guess there is some satisfaction that in federal court the loser has to pay court costs,” Mohler said. “I imagine that will be of little solace to the people who have had to read these lies for months.”
Grice’s attorney, Kathleen Cahill, declined to comment “at this juncture.”
In April 2005, Grice accidentally interrupted Homan and Berger in Berger’s office after hours, according to her $1 million lawsuit. Six months later, a panel including Homan and Berger chose a male external candidate to replace Grice, who was demoted, twice suspended and ultimately fired, the lawsuit said.
But Motz said Grice was not picked for the job because she didn’t interview well and had a history of complaints from co-workers.
During a deposition, she testified the bias stemming from the interruption of Homan and Berger might have been the same if she were a man.
“I think it would have been the same if it had been anyone, but I also think the sequence of events afterward were handled differently with me because I was a woman rather than someone else if they had been male,” Grice testified.
Motz ruled against Grice’s sex discrimination claims, but suggested she take her allegations of contractual interference to state court.
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