White Bird Clinic in Eugene has agreed to a settlement with a former CAHOOTS worker, after the employee claimed she’d been retaliated against for reporting a coworker’s sexual misconduct.
White Bird agreed to pay the plaintiff $600,000, according to her lawyer. The settlement amount wasn’t disclosed in publicly available court documents. White Bird did not confirm the amount when asked by KLCC.
In a federal lawsuit filed in January, Megan Plett accused White Bird of retaliation and discrimination while she was employed at the nonprofit between 2020 and 2023.
Plett claimed a co-worker had sexually and physically assaulted her in mid-2021. She also said he told her he wanted to have sex with an underage CAHOOTS client.
According to Plett, when she reported these issues to co-workers and Human Relations, her hours were cut, she was placed on involuntary leave, and she faced pressure to leave her job. She claimed she lost the equivalent of four months of wages.
“The work environment was so intolerable that a reasonable person in the plaintiff’s position would feel compelled to resign,” read Plett’s lawsuit.
An investigation by the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries last year found White Bird had engaged in “severe sexual harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, and constructive discharge” against Plett.
KLCC doesn’t normally name victims of sex crimes, but Plett’s lawyer, Matthew Ellis, identified her in a statement, and provided permission to use her full name on her behalf.
KLCC is not identifying the accused co-worker by name because he wasn’t listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, and hasn’t been criminally charged in connection with the claims.
White Bird didn’t immediately confirm whether that person is still employed at the nonprofit. CAHOOTS, a mobile crisis intervention service, is no longer operating in Eugene, but continues to serve Springfield.
The investigation
In her lawsuit, Plett said she had reported her co-worker’s behavior and the retaliation to HR in late 2021 or early 2022, but was ignored.
White Bird would later claim in BOLI’s investigation that there was “no documentation within HR indicating these allegations occurred.”
But internal emails from June 2022 appear to show that there was an investigation in progress. Portions of those messages were included in a BOLI document, which KLCC obtained via a public records request.
In October 2022, Plett claimed she re-reported the allegations to White Bird’s new Head of Human Relations, Melanie Bickley.
In an email to a colleague from that month, Bickley said two people, including Plett, had mentioned that the co-worker was “super inappropriate to underage clients, in addition to all the other things.”
Three days later, White Bird placed the co-worker on administrative leave with pay, according to the non-profit legal filings.
In an email sent shortly afterwards, Amanda Walkup, an attorney working with White Bird, said she believed the co-worker’s “misconduct has been going on for a long time, [and] very little has been done about it.”
BOLI’s investigation also noted a separate complaint into the co-worker. He was accused by a different former employee of exposing himself and urinating in a cup in front of them.
Plett’s departure from White Bird
That December, Bickley wrote in an email that she wanted to offer a severance package to Plett to leave CAHOOTS. She cited “an abundance of work performance issues,” while referring to Plett as “the victim from” the co-worker.
“Can I do this? What role does the union play here?” Bickley wrote to Walkup. “I know for a fact she will take it, and it is ABSOLUTELY worth it for us to have her walk away with a severance.”
Later, Plett’s lawsuit would claim that White Bird had nitpicked and micromanaged her performance in an attempt to push her out.
In mid-2023, the co-worker accused of assaulting Plett was allowed to return to work, according to White Bird’s legal filings.
An attorney working with White Bird, Elizabeth Stubbs, wrote in an email in March 2023 that the coworker was “back [because] no hard evidence,” although she said he hadn’t yet returned.
In a legal filing in response to the lawsuit, White Bird said it had “lacked sufficient knowledge and information to admit or deny” 18 of the plaintiffs' claims.
On March 10, 2023, Plett gave notice that she planned to resign from her position in April. Instead of having her continue to work, White Bird opted to walk her out of the building, and pay her through her resignation date.
The settlement
Plett's lawsuit originally sought $1 million in damages, but the parties agreed to settle out of court for a smaller amount, and the case was dismissed in July.
In an email to KLCC, Plett’s lawyer Ellis said the lawsuit focused on a toxic culture in an otherwise well-meaning organization.
“We are optimistic that her case will serve [as] a wake-up call to both the organization as it reinvents itself,” said Plett, “and the community-at-large and help create a path toward change, healing and reconciliation for all involved.”
In a statement to KLCC Monday, White Bird’s Executive Director Amée Markwardt said it was committed to providing a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees.
“We take all concerns seriously and continuously strive to strengthen our policies, practices, and training to ensure an environment that reflects our organizational values of care, dignity, and accountability,” she said.
The payout comes as White Bird Clinic has already faced financial turmoil in recent years, which has led to the shuttering of its long-running Front Rooms program and a reduction in its CAHOOTS services.
