A former MSUPD HR administrator is suing MSU and MSUPD leaders for retaliation in their actions following several Office of Institutional Equity, or OIE, reports of racial discrimination in the workplace.
While former HR administrator Crystal Perry and her attorney Elizabeth Abdnour “don’t question” Perry’s perception of racial discrimination in her time at MSUPD, Abdnour said the case is focused on retaliation because proving discrimination would be much more difficult.
“The retaliation was what we really had pretty clear evidence of in my mind,” Abdnour said. “(Perry) is still concerned about the race discrimination, but when you've got a whole bunch of people saying and all corroborating, ‘this isn't what we were doing,’ that's going to be a very tough battle to fight.”
Perry began working at MSUPD in July 2021 and had concerns on day one, Abdnour said. From being given an office in a “broom closet” to hearing objections to her role in promoting diversity, Perry felt like she was not wanted in the department, Abdnour said.
“What this created was just a lot of stress and anxiety for her,” Abdnour said. “She was worried about doing her job on a day-to-day basis, because (she wondered if) she was going to get a complaint filed against her.”
Every OIE complaint Perry filed was assigned to the same investigator, Erika Giroux, who defended MSU in a Title IX lawsuit settled in January. The role of an OIE investigator, according to the OIE website, is to “conduct an impartial, fair, and unbiased investigation.” Abdnour said Perry felt uncomfortable with Giroux from the beginning because she was worried Giroux was “just here to protect the university.”
The basis of Perry’s claim of retaliation relies on the escalation of her poor treatment after she filed the OIE complaints, particularly after she filed a complaint against then-Chief of Staff Daryl Green, one of the four named defendants of the case.
“It went from being just sort of a really general hostile environment to her, I felt, being directly targeted by her boss at that point,” Abdnour said.
One of the actions Perry and Abdnour felt were particularly retaliatory was how Perry was terminated. Although, Abdnour said, Perry was given a positive performance review in March, she was ultimately terminated on the last day of her probationary period, July 8, 2022.
The probationary period is a standard part of employment contracts through the Administrative Professional Supervisory Association, the union Perry fell under. Abdnour said waiting until the last day to terminate her employment after not expressing any need for improvement felt “mean and spiteful.”
“What I think is really strange about Crystal’s situation is that if she was such a problem, why was this only being noted after March and she had her interim review,” Abdnour said. “That makes it feel retaliatory to me … It just seems to me like they took the absolute meanest approach.”
Abdnour said there is evidence to argue Perry was retaliated against even after she left the position at MSUPD. She said Perry applied for an open HR position in the College of Nursing and offered an interview that was confirmed on July 13, 2022. The day after confirmation, her interview was revoked.
Perry was told the university’s central HR told the College of Nursing that her application was “off the list,” Abdnour said. Abdnour said she couldn't find any reason for the sudden cancellation unless somebody had interfered with the process.
“You've already done a review of their resume, you've already compared them to everybody else you've got coming in, you've determined that they're qualified,” Abdnour said. “It seems to me that the evidence indicates that it's very likely that that was a retaliatory act by somebody just not wanting her to ever work at MSU again.”
In order to argue a retaliation claim, Abdnour must prove that Perry engaged in an activity protected under the law, that the defendants took adverse action against her and that that adverse action was taken directly because Perry engaged in the protected activity.
Perry’s complaints to OIE are protected under the law and her supervisors were aware she filed them.
Following the reports, Abdnour said Perry was removed from her office, demoted and ultimately terminated, which are considered adverse actions. The argument Abdnour will be focused on in the lawsuit is that the actions taken against Perry were done because she had filed the complaints.
In the suit, filed on Feb. 25, Perry said this was her last avenue to hold MSUPD accountable.
“More than anything, (Perry) truly wants the MSU police department to be a fair and equitable workplace,” Abdnour said.
