A former county employee has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the county, the city and seven other defendants, claiming that false allegations that she was having an affair with a co-worker and trysting in a public park led to her being both terminated and humiliated.

Linda C. Mason, 62, a former assistant deputy prothonotary, filed an amended complaint in early October, claiming age discrimination, violation of her civil rights, violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, defamation, invasion of privacy, false imprisonment, civil conspiracy and more. She is seeking in excess of $100,000, and wants a jury trial.

The case, in Philadelphia in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was filed in May.

It stems from an incident in mid-May 2006, when an employee at a law firm across the street from Musser Park in Lancaster saw what she thought was a sexual encounter between Mason and another county employee. The police were called, and Mason was questioned; no arrests were made, but two days later Mason lost her job. Subsequently, the county conducted an investigation and told her she was eligible for re-hire — but not before the story wound up plastered all over the Internet.

Named as defendants are Randall Wenger, the county prothonotary; Bonnie Ashworth, the county's director of human resources; Annie Brubaker, an employee in the prothonotary's office; the Lancaster City Bureau of Police; city police Officer Larry Steven Wolpert; the law firm of Pyfer Partners; Katrina Irwin, a Pyfer employee; and the City of Lancaster.

Mason, reached by phone Friday, declined to comment, referring all questions to her attorney, Nina B. Shapiro. Shapiro said she never comments on matters in litigation.

Attorneys for the county, city and Pyfer Partners also declined to comment.

Prothonotary Wenger, who is running for re-election Tuesday, declined comment except to say that "I am confident that when the facts of this case become public, my actions will be justified and will be determined to have been both appropriate and necessary."

Problems with colleague
The complaint asserts that Mason, 62, whose "exemplary performance" resulted in her being promoted to assistant deputy prothonotary, began having problems with co-worker Brubaker on or about February. Brubaker, a "substantially younger co-worker, commenced to harass, intimidate, threaten and torment the Plaintiff with false accusations that the Plaintiff was having a sexual affair with an employee in the maintenance department for Lancaster County," according to the complaint.

Included with the complaint is an exhibit purporting to be a note written by Brubaker in which the author writes, "For the record, Linda, everyone in this office knows about you and the janitor and when I say everyone I mean everyone, as well as half the Courthouse"; the writer threatens to call both Mason's husband and the maintenance worker's wife "and inform them both just what has been going on."

In the complaint, Mason denies that there ever was an affair. She claims she reported the "harassment and threats" to Wenger, who "failed to act to stop, correct or remedy the harassment." The resulting "emotional distress ... interfered with [Mason's] ability to perform her job."

The issue then came to a head May 15, 2006, when "someone at Pyfer Partners," later identified as Katrina Irwin, called Lancaster police to say she had seen two people having sex in Musser Park, on East Chestnut Street, across from the law office. Officer Wolpert responded to the call and subsequently "wrongfully detailed and forcefully interrogated" Mason about her relationship with the male employee of the county's maintenance department. Wolpert, according to the complaint, "made sarcastic threats to the Plaintiff such as 'do you want to get fired' and 'I could report this to the newspaper.' "

Two days later, May 17, according to the complaint, the county, Wenger and Human Resources Director Ashworth — acting "upon the false statements that Plaintiff had sex in the public park with the maintenance employee" — terminated Mason, providing no notice or reason. May 18, Mason was "publicly stripped of her status and position as the Assistant Deputy Prothonotary."

The male maintenance worker was not fired.

But Ashworth, the county human resources director, said Mason resigned from the county prothonotary's office; when the story hit the Web, published by Ron Harper Jr.'s 5thEstate.com, a copy of a memo written by Prothonotary Wenger accepting Mason's resignation was posted. Mason's name was blacked out.

Harper's story, titled "County Employees — Sex in the City," named neither Mason nor the maintenance worker.

A May 30, 2006, memo from Ashworth, filed as an exhibit in the lawsuit, informed Mason that an investigation was conducted by a Lancaster County detective and "the outcome of that resignation has resulted in your eligibility for rehire by the county."

Ashworth said that as of June 19, 2006, Mason transferred from the prothonotary's office to the county Human Relations Commission. Her employment there ended Nov. 3, 2006. Ashworth would not say why Mason left.

Mason's lawsuit is filed on 11 counts. Claiming "financial losses, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, anguish, lost reputation, lost career and public ridicule" — and that the county, Wenger and Ashworth treated her differently and retaliated against her "because of her age, sex and/or for reporting discrimination and harassment," she filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission prior to filing the lawsuit in early May.

She claims the city, its Bureau of Police and Officer Wolpert subjected her to "abuse of police power, abuse of police authority, unlawful seizure, unlawful detainment, unlawful imprisonment, use of unreasonable force and false reports" and violated her rights.

She claims Pyfer employee Katrina Irwin and the firm itself — where, she notes, Officer Wolpert's wife worked — facilitated a "false report of lewd behavior" against her, leading to a violation of her rights.

She alleges age discrimination against the county, along with violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

For each of the 11 counts, she seeks actual damages for loss of revenue, including back pay, differential pay, future earnings and loss in benefits; compensatory damages for mental anguish, personal suffering, professional embarrassment and public humiliation; punitive damages; costs and attorney fees and other relief to which she may be entitled.

All defendants in the case have filed motions for dismissal, arguing that Mason has failed to prove her claims.

The attorneys for Pyfer Partners, Elizabeth Underwood and Jonathan Weiss, note that "the only direct, factual allegation made against Defendant Pyfer Partners claims that on May 15, 2006, 'someone at Pyfer Partners' called the police regarding plaintiff engaging in sex outside at Musser Park," and that the law firm had no role in the incident being published on 5thEstate.com or in Mason losing her job.

Irwin, the attorneys wrote, was merely reporting "what appeared to be lewd conduct in the public park across the street from her office."

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Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.