San Mateo County Pays Historic $8,000,000 Settlement to End Sexual Harassment and Sex Discrimination Lawsuit

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Jul 22, 2024, 16:13 ET

Former San Mateo County SWAT team member Carryn Barker reaches historic settlement of $8,000,000 after enduring years of sexual harassment and assault

LOS ANGELES, July 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A historic settlement has been reached in the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by San Mateo County Sheriff's Office detective and former SWAT Operator Carryn Barker.

The $8,000,000 settlement effectively ends Barker's lawsuit against San Mateo County arising out of Barker's allegations of enduring years of sexual harassment and discrimination at the Sheriff's Office and a sexual assault by former SWAT Team Leader Andre Moniot. The settlement came shortly before the lawsuit's September trial date and the date when the Court was to decide whether Barker's attorney, Zak Franklin, would have the opportunity to depose Sheriff Christina Corpus about her role in San Mateo County's mistreatment of Barker.

During the almost two-year litigation, documents and depositions of 21 current and former employees of the Sheriff's Office revealed that Barker—a UC-Berkeley graduate, a Medal of Honor recipient, and only the second woman to ever qualify for San Mateo County's SWAT team—was subjected to sexual harassment by her SWAT team supervisor, Andre Moniot. The harassment and discrimination began shortly after Barker joined the SWAT team in 2018 and it included Moniot making frequent vulgar comments about Barker's body, telling Barker and others that he wanted to have sex with Barker, instructing Barker to wear revealing clothing during team workouts, touching Barker inappropriately, requiring Barker to ride alone with him to and from SWAT functions, and eventually assaulting Barker at a SWAT team gathering in October 2021.

Evidence discovered by Barker's attorneys in the lawsuit revealed that San Mateo County Sheriff's Office's culpability went well beyond Moniot. Sheriff's Office employees testified that they reported Moniot's sex harassment of Barker to multiple high-ranking officers at the Sheriff's Office, but nothing was done to investigate the matter or protect Barker until after she filed the lawsuit. Testimony revealed that as of early 2021—several months before Moniot sexually assaulted Barker—at least five high-ranking officers were aware that Moniot was sexually harassing Barker but failed to intervene. Moniot himself testified that he would not have sexually assaulted Barker if anyone in a leadership position at the Sheriff's Office had informed him that Barker and others had reported his sexual harassment of Barker.

Moniot's sexual assault of Barker was widely discussed at the Sheriff's Office in the months following the assault, but the Sheriff's Office did not take any action to investigate the matter or to protect Barker until a retiring high-level officer formally notified the Sheriff's Offices' Internal Affairs department in August 2022. Witnesses stated that the Sheriff's Office's belated investigation was motivated by then-Sheriff Bolanos's desire to punish Moniot for his support of now-Sheriff Christina Corpus and his purportedly leaking to media information about Bolanos abusing his position as sheriff to help a friend recover a vintage Batmobile.

Evidence uncovered in the lawsuit revealed that both the Bolanos and Corpus administrations failed to punish the high-ranking officers who failed to protect Barker and some of those officers even received promotions despite their failure to protect Barker. "It would be misleading for the Corpus administration to claim Corpus had no role in how Carryn was mistreated," added Franklin. "Leadership under both the Bolanos and the Corpus administration should be ashamed of how they treated Carryn."

In August 2022, the Sheriff's Office forced Barker to participate in an Internal Affairs investigation into Moniot's harassment of Barker despite Barker being told that the investigation was a means to retaliate against Moniot rather than to protect Barker and with Barker still required to follow Moniot's orders during dangerous SWAT operations. Despite initiating an Internal Affairs investigation, the Sheriff's Office failed to take any action to protect Barker from Moniot. One witness testified that in August 2022 several men in leadership at the Sheriff's Office met to discuss Moniot's harassment of Barker and they unanimously agreed that something should be done to protect Barker from Moniot, but still nobody took any action to protect Barker. Barker took a leave of absence from the SWAT team in September 2022 to avoid having to attend the same SWAT team function where Moniot assaulted her the previous year and where Moniot was expected to be in attendance that year. Barker ultimately resigned from the SWAT team in November 2022 after the County still failed to do anything to protect Barker from Moniot.

Resigning from the SWAT team was devastating to Barker. "I loved that team so much. They were my brothers. I worked so hard to be on that team and to form those relationships," said Barker. "You know, there's nowhere else you know somebody will take a bullet for you without the blink of an eye. And because of one person's actions and the County refusing to help me, that was all taken away from me."

San Mateo County Sheriff's Office continued to fail to do anything to protect Barker until she engaged attorney Zak Franklin of the law firm Franklin Law P.C. and the firm filed Barker's lawsuit in November 2022. Barker was not eager to file the lawsuit. "I didn't want a lawsuit; I just wanted the harassment to end," said Barker. "I reported the harassment to multiple supervisors and co-workers, but nobody did anything to protect me until I hired Franklin Law and filed the lawsuit." The lawsuit received coverage from numerous news outlets.

Once the lawsuit became public, members of the SWAT team rallied to support Barker with one member of the SWAT team interrupting a meeting of the Sheriff's Office's leadership and telling the Undersheriff that the entire SWAT team was going to resign if Moniot was not immediately put on a leave of absence. Other women victimized by men at San Mateo County Sheriff's Office also contacted Barker and her attorneys to share their own experiences of sexual harassment and discrimination at the Sheriff's Office and to express their support of Barker and her lawsuit. "Carryn was the tip of the spear; she had the support of so many women and allies at the Sheriff's Office and across the state," said Franklin.

After nearly 2 years of litigation, San Mateo County agreed to pay Barker $8,000,000. This $8,000,000 settlement is believed to be one of the largest settlements for a single-plaintiff sexual harassment case in California history. "This lawsuit was a win for not only Carryn Barker, but also for the many other women who have endured sexual harassment and discrimination at the Sheriff's Office," said Franklin. "Hopefully this will lead San Mateo County to clean up the Sheriff's Office and to start protecting women from harassment and discrimination—and make them feel safe to report such illegal conduct when it happens."

Carryn Barker may be reached through her attorneys, Zak Franklin and Julianna Zalinski, at [email protected]

About Franklin Law
Franklin Law was founded on the belief that workers—not just wealthy corporations—deserve exceptional legal representation. The firm was established by attorneys who graduated from top law schools and who received several years of training and experience at some of the country's most prestigious law firms where they represented clients that included Disney, Verizon, AT&T, Oracle, JP Morgan, Nationwide, The Cheesecake Factory, and other companies that pay top dollar to hire the best attorneys.

Now, Franklin Law's attorneys focus on achieving excellent results for workers who are victims of wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wage theft. In just four years, Franklin Law has recovered over $20,000,000.00 for our clients.

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SOURCE Franklin Law PC