Debra Loeffelholz, UW Employee Told Not to "Flaunt" Her Gayness, Can Proceed With Discrimination Suit

If court records are to be believed, Debra Loeffelholz had a boss from hell. A program coordinator in the University of Washington's facilities department, she was asked by supervisor James Lukehart whether she was gay. When she said she was, Lukehart told her not "to flaunt it" around him, according to a state Court of Appeals ruling released today. And that's not all.

She lost the ability to use flex time and attend training seminars. Lukehart refused to complete evaluations of her performance. He told her co-workers that she was gay and overweight. He also had an obsession with revenge, telling Loeffelholz that he had a gun in his car and was compiling information on people "to use against them later," according to the ruling.

So you would think that if anybody was subject to a hostile work environment, Loeffelholz was. But Loeffelholz's claim of discrimination against UW and Lukehart, filed in 2009, hinged on technicalities that caused a trial court to rule against her in a summary judgment.

At issue was the timing of Lukehart's actions. There's a three-year statute of limitations on such suits, so the latest act of discrimination had to be made within that time period. The egregious behavior also had to occur after the state's discrimination laws were amended, in June 2006, to protect gays and lesbians.

Reversing the trial-court decision, the appeals court found there was relevant behavior within three years of Loeffelholz filing her suit--namely, Lukehart, in the Army Reserves and shortly to be deployed to Iraq, said at a meeting that he was going to return "a very angry man." But the exact date of that meeting remains in question, and so the appeals court said it couldn't be sure whether Lukehart made the remark after the state's discrimination laws were amended.

Still, the appeals court gave the suit a green light to continue, remanding it back to the lower court to sort out the precise timing.

One of the strangest things of all about this case is that Lukehart, despite all the conduct described, is still working at UW. Rick Cheney, the school's director of maintenance and alternations, confirms that Lukehart is an employee in his department, although no longer in the same division as Loeffelholz.

Cheney tells SW he cannot discuss the case, nor an investigation he once conducted into Lukehart's conduct. That investigation found that Lukehart was manipulative and intimidating, according to today's ruling.

But Lukehart has a very different story. In a lawsuit filed in 2009, he claims he was the one discriminated against because of his service in Iraq. Upon his return, the UW demoted him and reduced his salary.

"Mr. Lukehart's change in status had nothing to do with his service in Iraq," UW spokesperson Norm Arkans cryptically told a Seattle P-I reporter covering Lukehart's suit a couple years back. Now we know what Arkans meant.

Neither Lukehart nor his attorney could be reached today for comment.

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