Atlanta-area taxpayers are on the hook for practically $1 million to settle a civil sexual discrimination declare in opposition to Fulton County Commissioner Natalie Corridor.
Decide Jason Patil awarded Corridor’s former chief of employees, Calvin Brock, $902,487 following an Equal Employment Alternative Fee discrimination swimsuit Brock filed in February 2021, claiming he was fired in retaliation for breaking apart with Corridor following a year-long love affair.
The ruling stems from a listening to in August wherein Corridor and Brock gave testimony concerning the affair.
“Corridor tried to power Brock to stay in an unique sexual relationship together with her, stalked him for months, and in the end fired him,” Patil stated within the ruling, in response to The Atlanta Journal-Structure.
Brock gained on the declare of sexual discrimination, however the decide decided there was not sufficient proof to assist his allegation that Corridor retaliated in opposition to him after he filed the authorized grievance in opposition to her.
As a result of the violations occurred as half Corridor’s official public duties, Fulton County is liable for masking all of the punitive damages within the case.
Corridor will hold her seat on the fee till her time period expires on the finish of the 12 months.
Underneath the choice, Brock is entitled to $460,000 plus curiosity in again pay, plus one other $143,392 in pay for “the length of Corridor’s present time period as commissioner.”
Brock sued for 3 years of future pay and a further $300,000 in compensatory damages, however Patil lower off the award for these things at $65,000.
The decide tacked on one other $184,000 to cowl Brock’s legal professional charges and court docket prices.
As a part of the choice, Fulton County is remitted to supply Corridor with coaching on supervisor duties, and a public discover should be posted acknowledging {that a} fee worker confronted sexual discrimination on the job.
On Wednesday, the fee voted 5-1 to just accept the ruling and agreed to not problem the choice, with Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. casting the one no vote, whereas Corridor recused herself within the matter.
Throughout the proceedings, Brock indicated that he by no means had each his ft firmly within the romance, whereas the decide discovered Corridor’s clarification of the affair implausible, siding with Brock on key features within the authorized declare.
“Even when the connection started mutually, it didn’t stay consensual for lengthy as a result of Corridor initiated a dizzying array of deceptions designed to observe and management his interplay with different girls,” Patil wrote.
Proof was offered displaying three monitoring gadgets had been found in Brock’s autos, presumably to surveil his actions.
The decide additionally highlighted that Corridor invoked the Fifth Modification greater than 150 occasions to keep away from self-incrimination, notably when questioned concerning the surveillance gadgets.
Within the ruling, Patil famous that pleading the Fifth “doesn’t forbid hostile inferences in opposition to events.”
Moreover, there was a dispute over whether or not Brock voluntarily resigned or if he was terminated in September 2020.
Allegations of the Intercourse Scandal Between Natalie Corridor and Calvin Brock
The scandal first emerged in February 2018 when Brock relocated to Atlanta after retiring as a police officer in New Jersey.
A number of months later, Brock moved into his mom’s basement whereas attempting to begin his personal enterprise, resulting in an opportunity encounter with Corridor at a neighborhood furnishings outlet.
Quickly, Brock was gainfully employed as a group relations supervisor on Corridor’s employees, incomes $60,000 per 12 months.
Subsequent, Corridor’s chief of employees DaVena Jordan departed not lengthy after Brock arrived, permitting Brock to step into a better place, which boosted his annual wage to $105,000. Just a little greater than half a 12 months later, Brock bought one other $20,000 elevate, leading to a $139,363 wage, together with advantages.
The pair began sleeping collectively at Brock’s condominium in early 2019, and the affair sizzled for greater than a 12 months because the lovers visited one another’s properties, and hid the connection from associates and associates.
However by March 2020, the connection started to bitter as Corridor grew to become jealous that Brock had began relationship different girls — and this was across the identical time that she started planting monitoring gadgets in Brock’s autos, in response to Patil’s ruling.
One other girl who was relationship Brock filed a whistleblower grievance regarding his relationship with the Fulton commissioner.
In the end, the grievance landed on the desk of Fulton County Auditor Anthony Nicks, who notified Corridor and two commissioners, nonetheless no motion was taken instantly to self-discipline Corridor, though commissioners voted 5-0 in September to censure Corridor greater than two years after the scandal got here to gentle.
Brock stated he confronted Corridor after he got here throughout two monitoring gadgets planted inside his autos in June and August 2020.
Corridor asserted she discovered the distant gadgets in Brock’s automobile, eliminated them, then reinstalled them after a retired Atlanta police officer purportedly suggested her to take action.
Brock found a 3rd monitoring machine in one in all his automobiles on Aug. 31, 2020, and used it to verify if Corridor was nonetheless monitoring him. Two days later, Corridor terminated Brock’s employment over textual content message.
