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Fri May 16, 2008
Stillwater mayor faces harassment, bias lawsuit
Roger McMillian
About the claims
Barbara Gose, Raeann Meyer and Lois Akers claim the bank environment is perceived as hostile by some female employees, and that Roger McMillian frequently made derogatory and sexually explicit slurs and jokes about the bodies and attire of female customers and young, attractive job applicants.
The suit also alleges that McMillian wanted to send a particularly attractive female employee to a bank booth at Oklahoma State University for new accounts, "because college boys would love looking at her body, and she could get them to come to the bank's booth.”
The women also allege that McMillian allowed and encouraged sexually explicit e-mails to be exchanged among employees and that he encouraged bank employees to have a naked swimming party at a co-worker's house.
When the women reported their complaints to the head of the McAlester-based bank, Chief Executive Officer Greg Brown told one of the women that he found the allegations "hard to believe,” and would have to dismiss the complaint unless other employees called him, the document said.
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Mayor denies allegations
Although he said he had not actually seen the lawsuit Thursday morning, McMillian said he believes the allegations to be false because they were made previously to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which he said investigated the situation and found no violations of federal discrimination laws.
Young said she was not surprised the EEOC found no violations. She said the "investigation” McMillian referred to simply meant the commission took written statements from both sides.
"They did not investigate the claim, interview witnesses or even my clients,” she said. "They do not have the last word on this or else we would not have the right to pursue this in court.”
McMillian is a Stillwater native who was elected mayor in April 2006, and his term expires in 2009.
He graduated from Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa College of Law.
In the mid- to late 1970s, he served as city attorney for Stillwater and became employed as president of the bank in 2000.
Attorney threats alleged
Young writes in the lawsuit that McMillian once hired attorney Kieran Maye to give sexual harassment seminars to bank employees.
Once the seminar was over, however, the lawsuit alleges that