Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and top state lawmakers approved a $50,000 settlement with a former Kansas Highway Patrol employee who alleged the agency fired the worker for being transgender.
The State Finance Council – composed of Kelly and legislative leaders – voted unanimously Thursday to approve the settlement with William H. Dawes, a former civilian worker with the Highway Patrol in Topeka.
The Highway Patrol fired Dawes in July 2022 after an investigation into whether Dawes sexually harassed another employee by emailing her compliments on her looks and clothing. The Highway Patrol said it fired Dawes for initially refusing to participate in an interview for an internal investigation, not for the alleged harassment, which agency officials acknowledged wouldn’t have led to his termination.
Dawes in early 2023 filed a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination. The case had been headed toward trial in late July before Dawes and the Highway Patrol notified the judge in June that they had agreed to settle, according to a docket entry in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge John Broomes in April denied a motion for summary judgment – essentially a request to decide the case before trial – made by the Highway Patrol. Broomes ruled that a jury could conclude that Dawes wasn’t fired for being transgender but that “inconsistent and contradictory circumstances” surrounding the firing meant that some facts were in dispute.
Worker accused of harassment
After Dawes emailed a co-worker in June 2022, the Highway Patrol’s professional standards unit opened an investigation into the alleged harassment and instructed Dawes to sit for an interview. When Dawes arrived for the session, an investigator provided a written warning that employees could have an attorney present but also made clear the Highway Patrol could fire workers for refusing to answer questions.
Dawes refused to sign the warning and wanted to answer questions with an attorney present. Broomes wrote that Dawes was apparently the only Highway Patrol employee to have ever refused.
The interview didn’t take place. Dawes later called the professional standards unit and asked for another interview, which took place a few days later.
Col. Herman Jones, at that time the superintendent of the Highway Patrol, testified in a deposition that he had considered firing Dawes immediately after refusing the first interview, but allowed the investigation to proceed.
Still, Jones decided that Dawes’ refusal to sign the warning necessitated termination. The Highway Patrol fired Dawes on July 7, 2022.
“During his deposition, Jones asserted that the sole reason for Plaintiff’s termination was his refusal to answer question on June 13,” Broomes wrote.
In court filings, attorneys for Dawes noted that Jones was aware the employee was transgender and that Dawes was the only transgender employee in the Highway Patrol as far as Jones knew.
“Plaintiff thought that he was being targeted with the investigation,” Dawes’ attorneys wrote in a court filing. “A jury is entitled to consider and determine whether Plaintiff was singled out as the only transgender employee in the Highway Patrol and fired because of that status.”
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