A former University of Nevada, Reno, locksmith who charged his former boss retaliated for five years after he complained about computer and hard-copy porn images in the workplace, has been awarded $209,315 by a federal jury.
“There were a lot of people saying a lot of lies about me and I wasn’t sure which way this verdict would go,” Stricker told reporters after the verdict. “To me, this is a total vindication. I thank the jury members for having open minds, and their decision makes me think that right can win. I thank God, and I have no doubt he had a hand in that jury room.”
Published reports indicated UNR itself would pay the damages because Favre was sued as a campus worker, while Leone was cleared of allegations that he contributed to violating Stricker's civil rights. Stricker now works for UNR's perimeter security.
A case report in the Stricker/Favre dispute describes Stricker as claiming Favre began retaliating after Stricker complained about porn on computers and on display in the UNR locksmithing department as far back as 1999.
"He claimed that Favre punished him for expressing his belief that the screen savers and other sexually explicit information being displayed was inappropriate," the report continued. "He claimed that he endured five years of emotional distress and anguish at the hands of Favre and others that his place of employment."
The case report said the university's legal team dismissed Stricker's accusations as “petty workplace grievances that should be resolved in the processes in place at UNR” and not in federal court. Stricker had accused Favre of holding a grudge over the complaints, a grudge that allegedly extended to denying Stricker overtime pay, reloading a porn screensaver into a computer Stricker used, and downgrading him on employee evaluations.
The $209,315 damage award was said to be over $100,000 more than Charles Stricker, Jr.'s attorney, Jeffrey A. Dickerson sought in the case, in which Stricker sued former supervisor Rick Favre and Favre's boss, George Leone.
And it wasn't the only surprise of the trial. The jury of five women and three men asked the trial judge to read a statement they all signed condemning the UNR administration for having allowed such a case to even get to a trial.
“We are appalled and deeply disappointed that through actions or inactions of management, administration, and the university that this matter has come this far,” the jurors's statement said. “It shows gross disregard for university policy, taxpayers’ money, the court’s time, and First Amendment rights. This should never have come this far.”
