Mashel Law Files Whistleblower Suit Against Passiac County and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office

Mashel Law filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the New Jersey Superior Court under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) alleging their client Linda Benway, while working for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office as a dispatch supervisor overseeing the handling of countywide 9-1-1 calls, was the victim of a hostile work environment consisting of acts of intimidation, threats and bullying, done in retaliation for her reporting to superiors the conduct of co-workers which she reasonably believed was contrary to law and state public policy.

The lawsuit further alleges that Ms. Benway engendered the hostility of coworkers and her superiors by refusing to abide the pervasive “to get along, you go along” culture existing within the Sheriff’s Office where supervisors are expected not to report unlawful behavior of workers up the chain of command, but instead are expected to sweep it under the rug. Ms. Benway was the antithesis of this “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” ethos because she was a good and diligent supervisor who performed her job by the book and insisted that others who she supervised do the same. Rather than be supportive of Linda Benway’s efforts to promote an effective and efficient 9-1-1 call center, Ms. Benway claims her supervisors at the Sheriff’s Office either condoned or ratified by acts or omissions the unlawful misbehavior of coworkers. In fact, one of her supervisors berated and belittled Ms. Benway because as he put it, “you don’t let things slide”.

The retaliatory harassment and unrelenting vilification Linda Benway experienced on the job eventually broke her down both mentally and emotionally; it also vocationally disabled her. Since October 27, 2017 when she was taken out of work by ambulance, Linda Benway has been unable to return to work due to the permanent damage caused to her by the extreme stress, anxiety and distress she experienced working for the Sheriff’s Office. On behalf of their client Linda Benway, the attorneys at Mashel Law seek to hold Passaic County and its Passaic County Sheriff’s Office legally accountable for all the harms, economic and noneconomic, caused to Ms. Benway by their responsible officials, officers, managers, supervisors, agents and/or employees.