Feb. 26—ROCHESTER — A 10-member jury is set to hear an Olmsted County social worker's discrimination claims from
a lawsuit filed in 2022.
"She has been humiliated and certainly put in a position where she is not working with a team," attorney Sandra Smalley-Fleming told the Olmsted County jury Monday on behalf of her client, Wilhelmina Jacob.
The jury of six women and four men was seated Monday afternoon, with the trial exected to take two weeks.
Smalley-Fleming, who is from the Minneapolis-based Fredrickson and Byron law firm, said Jacob, who is 52 years old and Black, saw two younger white women hired for positions she sought since 2018 and a younger Black woman hired in a third attempt to become a supervisor.
In that time, Smalley-Fleming claimed Jacob has been forced to take a newly created position that she considered a demotion, offering no chance to build on her more than two decades of experience with the county.
"It's clear there were no other options for Ms. Jacob, other than to move (into the new position) or resign," she said of her client, who is still employed by the county.
The
lawsuit claims Jacob faced discrimination based on her race, gender and age,
with reference to the fact that the county's Child and Family Services department does not have any women of color in supervisory positions.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, but Smalley-Fleming has reported she plans to present an expert witness, who estimates the economic impact of past decisions at as much as nearly $1.4 million.
Aaron Knoll, an attorney for the Minneapolis-based Greene Espel law firm, questioned the amount to be discussed later in the case and told the jury the county had legitimate and non-discriminatory reasons for the hiring decisions referenced in Jacob's lawsuit.
"The county promoted the best candidate for the job at the time," he told the jury as an attorney for Olmsted County.
He said testimony will outline how and why the decisions were made to fill the positions that Jacob sought.
In addition to discrimination claims, Smalley-Fleming said Jacob's job change, shifting from working with other social workers in the county's Parents and Children Excel program to being the sole social worker assigned to work with older teens in extended foster care, was seen as retaliation after taking a medical leave due to job-related stress.
Smalley-Fleming said the tasks outlined in the new job were very basic, with no leadership opportunity.
Knoll said the decision was made due to an increase of18-year-olds needing continued foster care support. He said the department's director saw the position as a good fit for Jacob, who had voiced concerns about working in the PACE program.