Posted on 09/12/2010 10:11:56 AM PDT by truthandlife
Court documents obtained Saturday by THE WEEKLY STANDARD reveal surprising new details about the gender discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Christine O'Donnell in 2005 against her former employer, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative non-profit based in Delaware.* O'Donnell, who is now challenging moderate congressman Mike Castle in the September 14 Delaware GOP Senate primary, sought $6.95 million in damages. In a court complaint, she extensively detailed the "mental anguish" she suffered after allegedly being demoted and fired because of her gender. And, although she didn't have a bachelor's degree until this year, O'Donnell implied she was taking Master's degree classes at Princeton University in 2003.
O'Donnell alleged in a July 1, 2005 complaint filed in district court that she had been demoted because ISI's conservative philosophy dictated that women must be subordinate to men. She claimed she was fired when she contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding her demotion. ISI told the Delaware News Journal that she had been "terminated for operating a for-profit business."
O'Donnell's finances, honesty, and stability have been called into question in light of her false and strange claims. The court complaint raises further questions on all fronts. O'Donnell, who made an annual salary of $65,000 at ISI as director of communications and public affairs, sought up to $6,952,477 million in damages, claiming, among other allegations, that ISI had defamed her and had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. O'Donnell sought:
--Up to $3,952,447 in "Direct Damages, including back pay" and "lifetime lost income and liftetime damage to reputation."
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
I agree. Conservatives can do a LOT better than Christine O'Donnell. I think a lot of the reason why she was chosen as the "Tea Party" candidate is because she is a reasonably attractive woman, and was likely to get Sarah Palin's attention as a "mama grizzly" for an endorsement.
It’s pretty odd. She ran a whole campaign for this very same seat. She won the primary in 2008, and then went on to compete against Biden in the general.
Wasn’t all this covered back then?
Why, yes it was.
Headline: Startling NEW talking point from the Castle campaign. Christine sued someone a while back.
There’s nothing new here. This was all discussed in 2008. See my freerepublic post of may 27. Lots of “dirt”, some yet to be discussed. Nothing too serious.
I skimmed the complaint as I have degree of familiarity with this type of litigation that Weekly Standard pundit and Castle sockpuppet John McCormack definitely lacks.
Several things jumped out at me from the start:
First, the complaint is substantial. It contains a detailed rendition of the facts and very clear allegations of retaliation by ISI against Christine. From what I can glean from my cursory reading of the complaint, the relevant time line as far as the retaliation goes is:
February 6, 2004- COD demoted to clerical/secretarial duties
February 12-19, 2004- COD complained to the Philadelphia EEOC about discrimination.
Febraury 26, 2004- COD fired with no explanation.
The propinquity of the contact with EEOC and her firing (only two weeks) establishes a prima facie case of retaliatory discrimination under Title VII. And a pretty strong prima facie case at that. That would be the result in any of the 11 Circuits. In other words, firing her so closely after she had contacted the EEOC, unless there were some compelling reason (which was not provided to her until 4 weeks later), is illegal under federal law. If I was presented with a case like this to defend, I would be very nervous because of this factual chronolgy. (As I understand it, they later came up with the excuse that she had been spending time promoting the movie Passion of the Christ for ICON Productions and was therefore derelict in her duties. That sounds pretextual to me, but I don’t have all the facts.)
Bottom Line: As far as the retaliatory discharge is concerned this is a substantial, non-frivolous lawsuit. It is not the work of some nut. Believe me, I have seen plenty of frivolous litigation, whether pro se or by attorneys. This is a thoughtful, well documented complaint.
I am not even going to address the breach of contract claims, but these appear substantial as well. (If she turned down 125K jobs elsewhere, including with ICON, and relocated from DC to Delaware, for much less money, there easily could be a fraud in the inducement or detrimental reliance claim. Again, it is a substantial claim, written by someone who knew what they were doing.
Well, you ask, if these claims are so substantial, whcy did she dismiss them?
The second thing I noticed is that the complaint is pro se. In other words Christine O’Donnell signed the complaint and was representing herself. But she did not craft the complaint. She assisted with it, I am sure. But it was done by a lawyer and a pretty good one, in my estimation. Having reviewed and answered many such complinats, this is not a shoddy job.
Well, why didn’t the lawyer sign it? Here’s my theory. This would have been a very controversial case in a small state, and many to most lawyers would not want to take it without a substantial retainer up from. ISI would have the resources to fight it and spend a lot of money and Christine O’Donnell would not have the money to match them. (A lawyer would get his attorney fees IF HE PREVAILED under Title VII, but he could suffer a loss of business or other adverse consequences; After all, doesn’t the onslaught against COD tell you that this entrenched cabal in Delaware and DC are ruthless?).
I am not even addressing the gender discrimination claims, as these are more fact intensive. But, if they had the factual support of the others, I would not dismiss them out of hand either.
Conclusion: This entire endeavor is a hit job, and the Weekly Standard should be ashamed of itself for employing the purveyor of this slime, John McCormack. He steps into the legal realm and, at least for those of us who know what we’re doing, he makes a complete ass of himself. I hesitate to address this nonsense, because the real issue is, and should be, not employment disputes which O’Donnell had half a dozen years ago, but votes Mike Castle may be taking and things he may begin doing to this country, a half dozen WEEKS from now.
If this is true, then I dont care who came out with the info. It is important to know RIGHT NOW. Cry all you want about the Establishment GOP, but the fact is, this was going to come out later. You think the Dems wouldn’t have trotted this out themselves? Rhino’s suck, but the truth is the truth. The sooner it is out, the better.
You and others keep saying this as if there is this person called “GOP” who sits in an office somewhere, vets candidates, and picks which ones get to run for office.
In 2008, She was UNCONTESTED in the Republican Primary. That is how she got “picked”. Nobody had a problem with her, in the sense that no other republican was in the election against her. There was no need for “vetting”, she was the only primary candidate.
In 2006, there were other candidates, and she came in 3rd in the primary.
Nobody gave her any money, and she spent $116,000 total in her general election campaign. She didn’t have “support” of any “GOP Establishment”, or the GOP either, actually getting fewer votes in Delaware than McCain/Palin did at the top of the ticket.
She lost in every county in the state, coming closest in the county most “republican”. The general election voters didn’t “pick” or “vet” her either.
Of course, some of these facts came out during that election as well, but so few people were paying any attention that it seems a lot of us (me included) thought this was all new allegations made up by the RINOS.
SO, this is why nobody is trying to refute the absurd claim that somehow she was “chosen” in 2008 as the shining light of the GOP, and that somehow that choice makes the facts meaningless now.
When one runs into the truth, there is no place else to go.
Well, before you can refer to them as "lies," you first have to demonstrate that. Which you have signally failed to even attempt to do so far.
Seriously, dude, your approach to O'Donnell is like she's your cult leader or something.
They weren't college loans they were unpaid bills. The university had to sue her for repayment.
Please adjust your 'story' accordingly.
One thing for sure is that looking through ISI leadership there aren’t many women. Was she a woman too strong?
-PJ
She is a nut case. There is way too much smoke here.
I suppose she can overcome it and be our version of Al Franken. Sort of a sideshow idiot who wins a Senate race by pure circumstances.
I would just hope people in Delaware support her in the general election so we don’t lose a 60th vote to repeal healthcare in the form of Castle.
We are never going to get to the magic sixty in 2012 through only solid conservatives. We will need the Lenin Sisters in Maine and a couple Castles to get this done.
Irrelevant. If the GOP cared about winning a seat, they would have properly vetted her and found a new candidate. Why didn't Castle run against Biden?
Like I said....the more intelligent seek more information, maybe get a bit circumspect. instead of reacting knee jerk with their emotions.
Thank you for that sane and sensible analysis.
Like I said, I accept these “smears” of Christine O’Donnell as truth. Never tried to deny them.
What I don’t accept that we have here the bumps and pitfalls of an average life, an average life exposed and villified like Mike Castle’s never will be.
I filed an EEOC case against mighty AT&T. And by damn I WAS discriminated against because of my sex. Go to hell if stuff like this doesn’t happen. The company granted my win but I guess this means I can’t ever run for Senator cause, well i dunno, maybe it says somewhere in the constitution that if you’ve ever filed a discriminatory lawsuit than you have no right, you idiot, to ever run for Senator.
Further, I’d be even more amenable to these mother-murdering sins of Christine O’Donnell if we were privy to all the sins of Mike Castle. But he’s so rich and has benefit of mucho bucks to pay all these muckrackers that the playing field is lopsided to say the least.
Though, since he’s rich as senatorial candidates in this country evidently must be, I suppose Castle’s never had money issues that forced him to sell his house to settle the mortgage lien, as O’Donnell finally had to do.
No wait...Castle instead voted to award huge companies our taxpaying dollars, companies who ran their companies into the ground but are not villified but rewarded with dollars he voted to give them. After all, the companies did not dare to run against him.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Oh, but that is O'Donnell's OLD explanation for why she didn't get her degree. She has a NEW reality now 17 years later, O'Donnell EARNS her degree:
Citing privacy reasons, Giglio could not explain the reasoning behind the timing, but O’Donnell’s campaign manager said Friday the candidate met a final course requirement this summer.This is the problem. Her supporters are still quoting the lies O'Donnell told before, instead of what she herself is saying today.“She’s gone through the process to receive her degree, that’s not the story. She fulfilled the last course requirement this summer. It was just a general elective course,” said O’Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran.
I hope that this illustrates why I don't think she can win a general election. When your own supporters can't keep up with what your "truth" is, it's time to move on.
BTW, I'd be a lot more forgiving of O'Donnell if in ANY of these latest statements, she would admit she misspoke before, and apologize, instead of pretending like all her past statements are really some RINO conspiracy to hurt her.
She is coming across now like a conspiracy nut. We made fun of Ross Perot when he claimed the Bush's were trying to detroy his daughter's wedding, but now O'Donnell says that Castle people were breaking into her house 2 years ago she just never reported it, and now people are hiding in the bushes at her house.
Would a strong woman sue somebody on dubious grounds for "gender discrimination"? Doesn't sound strong to me.
That is NOT true.
Christine had an opponent from Kent County. As I understand it he was a nice fellow named Jones or some sort.
But she had an opponent....the lies never stop.
My point is that when the smears are actually the truth, you can’t dismiss them simply because other smears were just smears.
The truth in this race is that the RINOs are losing, and they just shot themselves in the other foot.
I guarantee you there are more people out there, men and women, who would and should have filed cases for gender discrimination, were there any justice left in this country.
Now let's see how this plays out on Tuesday.
Or maybe I should ask you, which story do you think is the truth:
1) O’Donnell finished her degree in 2004, and just waited until now to pay.
2) O’Donnell just finished up her degree, finishing up a general elective course required for graduation.
Be careful, they are both claims made by O’Donnell, so whichever you pick, you will be “smearing” her.
Maybe you will take the “3rd way”, and try to explain how both are true. Or you could take the 4th way, and complain that since we “knew” about this in 2008, it’s meaningless now.
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