A federal magistrate judge today compelled former employers
of a George Mason University law professor accused of sexual harassment to
produce employment records that were subpoenaed by his accuser last month.
Magistrate Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr. of the Eastern District of Virginia denied
the defense’s motion for a protective order. He ruled that Bingham McCutcheon
and the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia must hand over records of
Joseph Zengerle’s previous employment there going back to 1981. But the judge
held off ruling on records from Zengerle’s time at the nonprofit Disabled
American Veterans.
Kyndra Rotunda, former director of a GMU legal assistance clinic for military
service members, has accused Zengerle, the clinic’s executive director, of
sexual harassment, retaliation and common-law assault and battery. The
university and Daniel Polsby, the law school’s dean, are also named in the suit
and accused of pay discrimination.
For more on the case, see the National Law Journal’s earlier coverage.
Washington solo practitioner Rick Seymour, who represents Rotunda, contended in
court that Zengerle had been fired from three previous jobs. Zengerle has
denied it.
“That goes directly to his credibility in this case,” especially if past
incidences of sexual harassment show up on his record, Seymour said.
Seymour is also seeking salary records to back up a claim that Rotunda was
underpaid because of her gender. Defense attorney Jeffrey Huvelle of
Washington-based Covington & Burling argued that past payment records are
irrelevant to the case because “what wasn’t known to the people at the
university doesn’t matter.”
More generally, Huvelle said that the plaintiff’s discovery requests are
“abusive and intrusive” and that Zengerle should not be “subjected to that kind
of scrutiny.” “What he’s trying to do is issue subpoenas over the 20-year
career of this individual to see if there’s anything he can find to impugn his
reputation,” Huvelle said. “This case shouldn’t be turned on a pivot to find
anything possible to discredit Mr. Zengerle.”
Judge Jones was largely unconvinced by the defense’s arguments, finding the
records at issue “related to the claim of the plaintiff.”
Disabled American Veterans, where Zengerle worked in the early 1990s, is exempt
from the court’s ruling until the judge can examine a confidentiality agreement
that the group and Zengerle are said to have signed. A hearing on the issue is
set for next week.
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